RFC 1580
Guide to Network Resource Tools
Guide to Network Resource Tools 💖🌸
okay bestie, this is RFC 1580, a little FYI doc (that's the FYI: 23 bit) about all the old-school network tools people used to find stuff online 🦋
- Number:
RFC 1580, alsoFYI: 23✨ - Group: Network Working Group
- Authors: EARN Staff, EARN Association 🎀
- Date: March 1994 📅
- Category: Informational 💜
- Obsoletes / Updates: the header doesn't list either one, so nothing is replaced or changed here 🫶
Status of this Memo 🌈
okay so the vibe here is that this memo is just for information, the Internet community can read it, and it is NOT a standard of any kind 💅 Like, nobody is required to follow it, and you can share it as much as you want because distribution is unlimited 🔥
Table of Contents 🧚
here's the whole map of the doc, bestie. every section is numbered, so when the text says "see Section 3.3.2.1" you can find it instantly 🍓
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. GOPHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1. What is Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Who can use Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3. How to get to Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4. Using Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5. VERONICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.6. Learning more about Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. WORLD-WIDE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.1. What is World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.2.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.4. Using World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4. WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1. What is WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2. Who can use WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3. How to get to WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4. Using WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.6 Learning more about WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5. ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1. What is ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2. Who can use ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3. How to get to ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.4. Using ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6. WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1. What is WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2. Who can use WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.3. How to get to WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4. Using WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.6. Learning more about WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7. X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.1. What is X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2. Who can use X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3. How to get to X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.4. Using X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6. Learning more about X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8. NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.1. What is NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.2. Who can use NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.3. How to get to NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.4. Using NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.1. Local access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.2. Remote access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.6. Learning more about NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9. TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.1. What is TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.2. Who can use TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.3 How to get to TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.4. Using TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10. BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.1. What is BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.2. Who can use BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.3. How to get to BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.4. Using BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.6. Learning more about BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.1. What is LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.2. Who can use LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.3. How to get to LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.4. Using LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
11.4.1. Commands for LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
11.4.2. Commands for FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12. NETNEWS (USENET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.1. What is NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.2. Who can use NETNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12.3. How to get to NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.4. Using NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1. ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.1. What is ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2. NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.1. What is NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.2. How to get to NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3. MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.1. What is MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.3. Learning more about MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.4. PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.1. What is PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5. IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.1. What is IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.2. How to get to IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.5.3. Learning more about IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6. RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.1. What is RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.2. How to get to RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
14. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
16. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
17. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software . . . . . 103
18.1. Gopher clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
18.2. World-Wide Web clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
18.3. WAIS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
18.4. Netnews - news reader software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106part 1 of 21 is done, so the map is set 🗺️✨ next up we start the actual tour with section 1, Introduction 💜
1. Introduction ✨
Okay bestie, the worldwide academic computer network is expanding WAY beyond its old limits, and the resources and services on it keep evolving and multiplying at a dizzying rate 😭. The typical user is hardpressed to keep up with this explosive growth. Fortunately, a bunch of tools exist to help find and retrieve network resources, so users anywhere can use texts, data, software and information for public access 💖. Facilities to explore public domain software repositories, consult mailing list archives and databases, retrieve directory information and join global group discussions are now available to everyone 🌈.
The key to all of this is a server, special software on some computer in the network that accepts requests (or queries or commands) and sends back a response automatically 🧚. The requestor doesn't have to be on the same computer (or even in the same part of the world) to use the server. Many servers take requests via electronic mail, so the requestor often doesn't even need to be on the same computer network as the server 💌. In many cases servers are interconnected, so once you've made contact with one server, you can easily talk to other servers too ✨.
Today lots of users have powerful desktop computers with advanced graphical, audio and storage capabilities, all connected to the network 💻. This has given rise to what's known as the client-server model 🎀. Users can have special software on their local computer called a client, which can use that computer's capabilities and also talk to a server on the network. Clients give an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface, allow use of pointing devices such as a mouse, and make use of other local features 🖱️. The client sends the user's requests to a server using a standardized format (called a protocol), and the server sends its response in a condensed format, which the client shows the user in a more readable way 🦋.
Several of these tools have several different functions. However, they could be sorted into functional areas by their main purpose 🍓. Sections two and three cover two services, Gopher and World-Wide Web, which use the client-server model to explore the network. They give a way to move through a wide range of network sources and resources in a uniform and intuitive way 🌸. A tool for searching a wide range of different databases throughout the network, WAIS, is documented in section four 🔍. The problem of knowing where to find network resources (files and programs) is tackled in section five, which covers archie 🕵️. Three tools for finding people, computers and their network addresses, WHOIS, X.500 and Netfind, are discussed in sections six, seven and eight 👀. While basically all of these can be used to get files of one sort or another, a few servers exist specifically for getting files easily and efficiently from various repositories in the network. Two of these, TRICKLE and BITFTP, are covered in sections nine and ten 📦. Sections eleven and twelve are about what's probably the most popular network resource of all: discussion groups on every imaginable topic 💬. The two tools there are LISTSERV and Netnews (Usenet). Section thirteen gives brief descriptions and pointers for a bunch of tools that weren't mainstream enough for a full write-up 🙈. Some are still in development (Prospero), some are pretty unknown outside a particular network (ASTRA and Netserv from EARN/Bitnet and Mailbase from JANET), and some are meant for chatting rather than work (Relay and IRC) 😭.
The purpose of this guide is to give the basic info anyone on the network needs to try out and start using these tools 🫶. It assumes basic networking terminology knowledge, plus familiarity with the basic tools: electronic mail (often called e-mail or simply mail throughout this guide) and, for those connected to the Internet, FTP (file transfer protocol) and Telnet (remote login) 📬. It's beyond the scope of this guide to describe these basic tools. The example in the BITFTP section shows how you can use BITFTP to get guides to these tools over the network 💅.
2. GOPHER
2.1. What is Gopher
The Internet Gopher, or simply Gopher, is a distributed document delivery service 🐹. It lets users explore, search and retrieve information living on different locations in a seamless way ✨.
When you browse it, the info shows up as a series of nested menus. That menu structure looks like a directory with lots of subdirectories and files 📁. The subdirectories and files might be on the local server site or on remote sites served by other Gopher servers. From the user's point of view, every information item on the menus appears to come from the same place 🌈.
The information can be a text or binary file, directory information (loosely called phone book), image or sound 🖼️. Gopher also offers gateways to other information systems (World-Wide Web, WAIS, archie, WHOIS) and network services (Telnet, FTP) 🚪. Gopher is often a more convenient way to navigate an FTP directory and download files 💾.
A Gopher server holds the information and handles users' queries. Links between Gopher servers create network-wide cooperation that forms the global Gopher web (Gopherspace) 🕸️.
2.2. Who can use Gopher
Gopher uses the client-server model to provide access to the Gopher web. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) to use a client on your computer to access Gopher 🫵.
2.3. How to get to Gopher ✨
okay so there are two ways to explore Gopher menus 🫶 you can use a local client that lives on your own computer, or you can telnet into a remote client through an interactive session 💻
2.3.1. Local clients 🍓
public domain clients for accessing a Gopher server are out there for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VM/CMS, VMS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows 💖 you can grab them with anonymous FTP from loads of FTP sites, like boombox.micro.umn.edu in the directory /pub/gopher. see the list of freely available client software in Appendix A 📚
2.3.2. Remote clients 🌸
some sites let anyone use their client, which is so generous of them 🥹 to get in, telnet to one of these sites:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| info.anu.edu.au Australia (login: info) |
| tolten.puc.cl Columbia |
| ecnet.ec Ecuador |
| gopher.chalmers.se Sweden |
| consultant.micro.umn.edu USA |
| gopher.uiuc.edu USA |
| panda.uiowa.edu USA (login: panda) |
| sunsite.unc.edu USA |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+at the login: prompt just type gopher (unless the site says otherwise) and boom, the top-level Gopher menu for that site pops up 🎀
people are asked to pick the site closest to them 🌍 be considerate, bestie 🫶
2.4. Using Gopher 💅
okay so every client is a little different depending on the platform 🖥️ they're made to make the most of what each computer can do (mouse, graphics, the X-Windows server) and to give you that popular look and feel ✨ but honestly? the same set of functions and commands is available no matter which one you use 🙌
when you type the gopher command, you get connected automatically to the default Gopher server that was set up at installation 🧚 the command looks like this:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| gopher <hostname> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where hostname is an optional alternative Gopher server you want to talk to 💜
once you're connected to a Gopher server, you can still reach another server by exploring the Other Gopher servers in the rest of the world branch 🌏 to make that easier, the servers are sorted into geographical regions:
- Africa
- Europe
- Middle East
- North America
- Pacific
- South America
and then by countries 🗺️
accessing a Gopher server is basically the same whether you're on a local or a remote client: a simple menu-driven interface that doesn't need any special training or knowledge from you 🥰 it's giving easy mode
here's a sample menu:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Gopher Information Client v1.1
Information About Gopher
1. About Gopher.
2. Search Gopher News <?>
3. Gopher News Archive/
4. comp.infosystems.gopher (Usenet newsgroup)/
5. Gopher Software Distribution/
6. Gopher Protocol Information/
7. University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy.
8. Frequently Asked Questions about Gopher.
9. gopher93/
10. Gopher| example server/
11. How to get your information into Gopher.
--> 12. New Stuff in Gopher.
13. Reporting Problems or Feedback.
14. big Ann Arbor gopher conference picture.gif <Picture>
Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------in the example above, you can pick any item by typing its line number or by moving the cursor (-->) next to it 👑
an item could be:
- a subdirectory
- a text file
- a binary file
- a sound file
- an image file
- a phone book (directory information)
- an index-search
- a Telnet session
items come with an identifying symbol next to them 👀 in the example, <?> means a full text index-search, / means a subdirectory, <Picture> means an image file, and no symbol means a text file 💅
some Gopher clients can't handle certain file types (like sound files) 🙈 some only show you the types they can handle or the files they think you're into, and others show everything 🌈
most Gopher clients let you create, view and select bookmarks ⭐ a bookmark keeps track of the exact location of a Gopher item, no matter where it lives 🦋 it's super useful when you keep needing a file or service that's buried far from the top-level directory 😭 a collection of bookmarks is basically a customized Gopher menu, iconic 🙌
some of what a local client can do depends on your own computer 💻 for sound files, image files and Telnet sessions, the Gopher client looks for the right software on your machine and hands control over to it to do the job 🫶 when that's done, control comes right back to the Gopher client ✨
at any time you can end the session (quit command), cancel whatever is currently processing, or grab the on-line help (help command) 🆘
an item gets handled according to its type:
a subdirectory its contents are displayed. to go up one level, use the up command.
a text file the file is displayed. then you can browse it, search for a particular string, print it on a local printer, or copy (save) it onto your local disk space in a file you pick. (the last 2 functions may not be available to you 🥲)
a binary file the remote file is simply copied onto your local disk space in a file you pick. binary files are binhexed Macintosh files, archives (.zip, .tar,...), compressed files, programs, etc. 📦
a sound file the remote file is played through your local audio device, if one exists, along with the appropriate utility. only one sound file can be active at a time; you'll get a warning if you try to play a sound before a previous one is done 🔊
an image file the remote file is displayed on your screen if an image viewer exists on your computer 🖼️
a phone book you're prompted for a search string to look up people information through the selected phone book. since different institutions have different directory services, the queries aren't done in the same way 📇
an index-search you're prompted for a search string, which can be one or more words plus the special operators and, or, and not. the search is case-insensitive 🔍 usually an index is created so users can find information in a set of documents quickly. for example:
terminal and setting or tsetwill find all documents which contain both the words terminal and setting, or the word tset. or is nonexclusive, so the documents may contain all of the words 💜
the result of the index-search looks like any Gopher menu, but each menu item is a file that contains the specified search string 🧠
a Telnet session Telnet sessions are normally text-based information services, for example, access to library catalogs 📚
2.5. VERONICA 🔎
okay, veronica is literally the reason Gopher didn't get lost in the chaos 😭 it was designed as a solution to the problem of resource discovery in the rapidly-expanding Gopher web, and it gives you a keyword search of more than 500 Gopher menus 🤯 you don't have to go menu-by-menu, site-by-site to find stuff. it is to the Gopher information space what archie is to the FTP archives 🫶
veronica is accessible from most top-level Gopher menus or from the Other Gopher servers... branch 🌸 no need to open another connection or another application, no cap 🙌
when you choose a veronica search , you'll be prompted to enter a keyword or keywords. the easiest way to search is to type a single word and hit the RETURN key 💅 it doesn't matter whether the word is upper-case or lower-case. the veronica server will send back a gopher menu made of items whose titles match your keyword, and you can access those items like any other Gopher menu 🧚 for example:
eudorawill give you a list of menu titles that contain eudora, such as:
Electronic Mail: Eudora on Macintosh, Micro-08
Modem Setting Eudora Slip.
A UNIX-based Eudora reader for those that ...
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
Eudora.etc. 💖
the search string can have keywords separated by and, or and not, if you want 🦋 if there's no operator between 2 keywords, and is assumed. for example:
eudora and macintoshwill give you a list of menu titles that contain both eudora and macintosh, such as:
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
v4.1 EUDORA: E-MAIL FOR THE MACINTOSH.
Micro News: Eudora - A Mailer for the Macintosh.
Eudora: Electronic Mail on Your Macintosh.
ACS News - Eudora Mail Reader for Macintosh.etc. 🍓
"*" is the wildcard character 🌟 it can replace any other character or characters at the end of a keyword. for example:
desk*will give you a list of menu titles, such as:
The Help Desk.
Keene State College Press Release COMPUTER ON EVERY DESK.
DESKQview/X... An alternative to Windows???.
Ethernet at Your Desktop/etc. 🖥️
2.6. Learning more about Gopher 📬
the Internet Gopher is developed by the Computer and Information Services Department of the University of Minnesota 🏫 bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to the Gopher development team at: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu 💌
Mailing list: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu To subscribe send a mail to: gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.gopher 🗞️
a comprehensive description of veronica search methods is available from the veronica menus 🔎
veronica is being developed by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the University of Nevada 👑 bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be addressed to: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu 💜
3. WORLD-WIDE WEB 🌐✨
3.1. What is World-Wide Web ✨
World-Wide Web (aka WWW or W3) is an information system built on hypertext. It lets you hop from document to document (the official term is usually called to navigate) across a whole network of information 🌐
Hypertext documents are linked together through a chosen set of words 🦋 So when a new word or concept pops up in a text, hypertext lets you point to another document that explains it in more detail. You open that second document by selecting the unknown word or concept, and the relevant section shows up. That second document can have its own links to even more details. You don't need to know where the referenced document lives, you don't have to type a command to display it, and you don't have to browse around to find the right paragraph. Cross-references can also be defined inside the same document. A collection of documents is a database 💅
If you were reading this on a hypertext system, instead of this all too short explanation about hypertext, you'd have a selectable pointer to a complete hypertext information web, with examples and more pointers to other definitions. Iconic 🧚
For instance, in the first document you might read:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area "hypermedia" information
retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large
universe of documents.
-----------------------------------------------------------------Selecting hypermedia will display the following explanation for you:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS HYPERTEXT
Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear.
Hypertext is text which contains "links" to other texts. The term
was coined by "Ted Nelson" around 1965 (see "History").
HyperMedia is a term used for hypertext which is not constrained
to be text: it can include graphics, video and "sound", for
example. Apparently Ted Nelson was the first to use this term too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------Then you can learn more about links and Nelson 🤓 The links in WWW aren't limited to text only, so the term hypermedia is more accurate. For example, the link to Nelson might point to a file containing a picture of Ted Nelson. The picture would be displayed on your screen if you have a suitable configuration 📸
Also, special documents (indexes) in the WWW information space can be search for given keyword(s). The result is a document containing links to the documents that were found 🔍
World-Wide Web uses hypertext over the network, so the linked documents may be located at various sites. WWW can handle different text formats and various information organizations. WWW also gives you access to many of the other tools described in this guide 🎀
3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web 🌸
WWW uses the client-server model to give you access to the information universe. You have to be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) to use a client on your computer and access WWW. If you're on the Internet but don't have a WWW client on your computer, you can still enter the World-Wide Web. Several sites offer public interactive access to WWW clients (see the Remote clients section under How to get to World-Wide Web below) 💖
If you have e-mail access only, or if you're not on the Internet, then you can not fully exploit the vast potential of WWW. BUT there's a mail-robot at the address listserv@info.cern.ch that gives e-mail access to WWW-accessible listserv@info.cern.ch files (see E-mail access section under How to get to World-Wide Web below) 📬
3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web 🦋
Users access the World-Wide Web facilities through a client called a browser. This interface gives you transparent access to the WWW servers. If a local WWW client isn't available on your computer, you can use a client at a remote site. So an easy way to start with WWW is to access a remote client 🌈
3.3.1. Local clients 💻
Using a local client is encouraged, since it gives better performance and better response time than a remote client 🚀
Public domain clients for accessing WWW servers are available for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows. The clients are available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in the directory /pub/www. All these platforms support a simple line mode browser. Graphical clients are also available for: Macintosh, Windows, X-Windows, NeXT and Unix. See the list of freely available client software in Appendix A ✨
3.3.2. Remote clients 🛰️
To access a remote WWW client, telnet to the client site. If you're new to WWW, you should telnet to info.cern.ch. No login is needed. You'll immediately land in the WWW line mode browser 🙌 Some publicly accessible clients feature locally developed clients. Most remote clients are at sites with WWW servers that hold information on specific areas. After you telnet to the client site, at the login: prompt enter www. No password is needed. The following remote client sites are available:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Site Country Server Specialization|
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| vms.huji.ac.il Israel Environment |
| info.cern.ch Switzerland (CERN) High-energy physics|
| fatty.law.cornell.edu USA Law |
| ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu USA History |
| www.njit.edu USA |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+CERN is the entry point for finding info about WWW itself, plus an overview of the Web with a catalogue of the databases sorted by subject 🧠
3.3.2.1. E-mail access 💌
To get a file, send mail to listserv@info.cern.ch with a SEND command. The SEND command returns the document with the given WWW address, subject to certain restrictions. Hypertext documents are formatted to a 72 character width, with links numbered. A separate list at the end of the file gives the document-addresses of the related documents 📜
If the document is hypertext, its links will be marked by numbers in brackets, and a list of document addresses by number will be appended to the message. This way, you can navigate through the web, more or less 🕸️ A good file to start with would be:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
Heads up: despite the name listserv in the address of this mail robot, it is not a LISTSERV server 👀
A note of caution from the WWW developers and maintainers:
"As the robot gives potential mail access to a vast amount of information, we must emphasise that the service should not be abused. Examples of appropriate use would be: - Accessing any information about W3 itself; - Accessing any CERN and/or physics-related or network development related information; Examples of INappropriate use would be: - Attempting to retrieve binaries or tar files or anything more than directory listings or short ASCII files from FTP archive sites; - Reading Usenet newsgroups which your site doesn't receive; - Repeated automatic use. There is currently a 1000 line limit on any returned file. We don't want to overload other people's mail relays or our server. We reserve the right to withdraw the service at any time. We are currently monitoring all use of the server, so your reading will not initially enjoy privacy. Enjoy!"
The W3 team at CERN (www-bug@info.cern.ch)
3.4. Using World-Wide Web ✨
When you're using a graphical interface, you get around WWW by clicking mouse buttons 🖱️. References show up as highlighted or underlined words, so to follow a link, just click the reference you want 💖
The line mode browser is a simpler interface 🧸. References are numbers in square brackets next to words. Type the number and hit the RETURN key to follow a reference. Here's what the beginning of the Subject Catalogue looks like on the CERN server 👀:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue
WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY
This is the subject catalogue. See also arrangement by service
type[1]. Mail www-request@info.cern.ch to add pointers to this
list.
Aeronautics Mailing list archive index[2]. See also NASA LaRC[3]
Agriculture[4] Separate list, see also Almanac mail servers[5].
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Abstract Indexes[6] at NASA, Astrophysics work at
FNAL[7], Princeton's[8] Sloane Digital Sky
Survey, the STELAR project, Space Telescope
Electronic Information System[9], the Southampton
University Astronomy Group[10], the National
Solar Observatory[11], Astrophysics work at the
AHPCRC[12]. See also: space[13].
Bio Sciences[14] Separate list.
Computing[15] Separate list.
1-81, Back, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
-----------------------------------------------------------------Okay, here's the command lineup 📋 Some commands get greyed out when they don't apply (like Find, which only works when you're sitting on an index). Anything in <> is an optional parameter 💅
Help🆘 gives you the commands that work in your current spot, plus the hypertext address of the document you're on.Manual📖 shows you the on-line manual.Quit👋 exits WWW.Up,Down🛗 scroll up or down one page in the current document.Top,BOttom⬆️⬇️ take you to the top or bottom of the current document.Back⏪ takes you back to the document you were reading before.HOme🏠 takes you back to the first document you were reading.Next,Previous⏭️ go to the next or previous document in the list of pointers from the document that brought you to the current one.List🔢 gives you a numbered list of the links in the current document. To follow one, type in its number.Recall <number>🕰️ if you leave the number out, you get a numbered list of the documents you've visited. To display one specific document, re-issue the command with its number.<Find> keyword🔍 queries the current index with the keyword(s) you give it. A list of matching entries shows up, possibly with links to more details. You can leaveFindout if your first keyword doesn't clash with another WWW command. Multiple keywords are separated by blanks.Go docaddress🧭 takes you to the document at the given hypertext address, which gets interpreted relative to the current document.
Extra command, Unix versions only 🐧:
Print🖨️ prints the current document, without the numbered document references. The default print command islpr, but your local working environment can define it with the variableWWW_PRINT_COMMAND.
To get into WWW with the line mode browser, type www 🎀 The default first document pops up on your screen, and from there you can roam the WWW universe by reading and following the instructions at the bottom of the screen 🌍 Want to start somewhere other than the default, or tweak something else about how it works? There are a bunch of command line parameters and options for that. The full format of the www command to invoke the line mode browser is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| www <options> <docaddress <keyword>> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
docaddressis the hypertext address of the document where you want to start browsing.keywordqueries the index specified bydocaddresswith the keyword(s) you supply. A list of matching entries is displayed. Multiple keywords are separated by blanks.
Options are:
-n📄 non-interactive mode. The document is formatted and displayed to the screen. Pages are delimited with form feed characters (FF).-listrefs📎 adds a list of the addresses of all document references to the end. Non-interactive mode only.-pn📏 sets the page length to n lines. Without a number, the page length becomes infinite. Default is 24.-wn↔️ sets the page width to n columns. The default is 78, 79 or 80, depending on the system.-na🙈 hides references in the text. Useful when you're printing out the document.-version🏷️ displays the version number of the software.
The commands above should be available in all clients 🫶 They can be abbreviated (the CAPITAL letters show the acceptable abbreviation), and case doesn't matter. Here's what makes the line mode browser special:
number🔢 type in a number given in[]and hit the RETURN key to follow the link tied to that reference.RETURN⏎ hit it to display the next page of the current document (without a reference number).
3.5. Examples 🎬
WWW gives you access to a whole information universe 🌌 Say you want to know how many film versions of The Three Musketeers there have been. You browse the WWW Subject Catalogue and pick Movies:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie database browser (Cardiff)
A Hypertext movie database browser
Sep 2nd... Your help is needed..[1]
Aug 29th.. Images, sounds, mpegs & reviews[2]
Select the type of search you'd like to perform:-
Movie people[3].....(multi Oscar winners)[4] or
Movie titles[5] .....(multi Oscar winners)[6]
Searches the "rec.arts.movies" movie database system, maintained
by Col Needham et-al.
Here[7] is some information on list maintainers.
If you have a comment or suggestion, it can be recorded here[8]
HERE[9] is a pre-1986 movie information gopher server. (at
Manchester UK)
1-13, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------You pick Movie titles, then type three musketeers as your keywords:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie title queries
MOVIE TITLE QUERY
Enter a movie title or substring.
Example, to search for movies with the word "alien" in their
title, type "alien".
This will return details on several movies, including Aliens[1]
Note: if the title begins with A or The, leave it out. If you're
determined to include it, then put ', A' or ', The' at the end of
the of the substring e.g.
Enforcer, The
Gauntlet, The
Searching is case insensitive.
search menu[2] Fun and Games page[3] COMMA home page[4]
FIND <keywords>, 1-5, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more,
or Help: three musketeers
-----------------------------------------------------------------And boom 💥 there have been six film versions of the story:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "three musketeers"
Three Musketeers, The (1921)[1]
Three Musketeers, The (1933)[2]
Three Musketeers, The (1935)[3]
Three Musketeers, The (1939)[4]
Three Musketeers, The (1948)[5]
Three Musketeers, The (1974)[6]
search menu[7] Fun and Games page[8] COMMA home page[9]
Rob.H[10]
Robert.Hartill@cm.cf.ac.uk
FIND <keywords>, 1-10, Back, Up, Quit, or Help: 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------You decide to dig into the 1921 version 🎞️
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "Three Musketeers, The (1921)"
THREE MUSKETEERS, THE (1921)
1921
Cast Belcher, Charles[1] ......Bernajoux
De Brulier, Nigel[2] ......Cardinal Richelieu
De La Motte, Marguerite[3] ......Constance Bonacieux
Fairbanks, Douglas[4] ......D'Artagnan
Irwin, Boyd[5] ......Comte de Rochefort
MacLaren, Mary[6] ......Queen Anne of Austria
Menjou, Adolphe[7] ......Louis XIII
Pallette, Eugene[8] ......Aramis
Poff, Lon[9] ......Father Joseph
Siegmann, George[10] ......Porthos
Stevens, Charles[11] ......Planchet
Directed by Niblo, Fred[12]
Music by Gottschalk, Louis F.[13]
1-21, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------And you're hooked 😭🔥 Next up: you look into Adolphe Menjou, search more titles, and hunt down Oscar winners, etc. 👑
3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web 📚
World-Wide Web is being developed at CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory) by the World-Wide Web team, led by Tim Berners-Lee 🧑🔬 Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to www-bug@info.cern.ch 💌
On-line documentation is available from info.cern.ch, for anonymous FTP or using the remote WWW client 🗂️
Mailing lists: www-talk@info.cern.ch To subscribe, send a mail to www-talk-request@info.cern.ch 📨
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www 🌸
4. WAIS 🌷
4.1. What is WAIS 🔎
WAIS, Wide Area Information Server, is a distributed information retrieval system 🌐 It helps users search databases over networks using an easy-to-use interface. The databases (called sources) are mostly collections of text-based documents, but they can also contain sound, pictures or video 🎵🖼️ You can search databases on topics ranging from Agriculture to Social Science with WAIS 🌾🧠
The databases may be organized in different ways and use various database systems, but users aren't required to learn the query languages of the different databases 🙌 WAIS uses natural language queries to find relevant documents. The result of a query is a set of documents that contain the words of the query: no semantic information is extracted from the query 🤓
4.2. Who can use WAIS 💖
okay so WAIS runs on the client-server model to get you into databases 🗂️ and you must be on the international TCP/IP network (aka the Internet) to use a client on your computer and access WAIS. no Internet, no client, sorry bestie 😭
but if you've only got e-mail, or you're not on the Internet at all, you can still get a taste of WAIS 🧚 there's an e-mail interface at waismail@quake.think.com that gives you e-mail access to WAIS databases (check the E-mail access part under Using WAIS below) ✉️
4.3. How to get to WAIS 🌸
there are WAIS servers all over the network 🌐 and there's a directory-of-servers database at several sites. you can send it a query to find out which databases cover a certain subject 🔍 it's also on anonymous FTP from Think.com in the directory /wais as the file wais-sources.tar.Z 🎀
if you don't have a WAIS client (no stress!), there are (at least) two demo sites where you can get acquainted with WAIS. you can telnet to:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| quake.think.com (login: wais) |
| sunsite.unc.edu (login: swais) |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+both demo sites run swais (Screen WAIS), a simple WAIS client for Unix. it's giving very "practice run" energy 💅
4.4. Using WAIS 🦋
there are SO many freely available client programs for different operating systems (Unix, VMS, MVS, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Macintosh) and environments (GNU Emacs, X-Windows, Openlook, Sunview, NeXT, and MS-Windows) 🤩 check the list of freely available client software in Appendix A.
the client interface looks slightly different on each platform, but the queries work the same way no matter what interface you're using ✨
- Step 1: you pick a set of databases to search from the ones that are available 📚
- Step 2: you write a query by giving keywords to search for 🔑
- Step 3: when the query runs, WAIS asks each selected database for info 📨
- Step 4: headlines of the documents that match your query get displayed. the selected documents contain the requested words and phrases, and they're ranked by how many matches they have 🏆
- Step 5: to pull up a document, you just select it from the list 📄
- Step 6: if the response is incomplete, you can ask the question differently or feed back any of the selected documents you found relevant 🫶
- Step 7: when you run the search again, the results update to include documents similar to the ones you selected, meaning documents that share a lot of common words 🔁
4.4.1. E-mail access
you can query WAIS databases and retrieve documents by putting commands in the body of an e-mail message to waismail@quake.think.com 💌 the Subject: line gets ignored, so don't stress about it. the important commands are below (a vertical bar (|) means you get to choose one of the parameters):
help
to get the help file
maxres number
to set the maximum number of results to be returned.
search source-name | "source-name1 source-name2 ..." keywords
where:
source-name
is a source name as found in the directory-of-servers (with or
without the .src ending). Use double-quotes (") to group
several sources to be searched.
keywords
are the words you would normally type into a query.
retrieve docid
to retrieve a document from a database. docid is a DocID as
returned by a search above. You may put more than one retrieval
request in a mail message, but you must leave a blank line between
requests. The docid must be written exactly as returned by a
search request, including any spaces. You can retrieve non-text
documents as well as text. If the document is of type TEXT or WSRC
you will get the result directly. Other types will be UUENCODED.
DocID: docid
same as retrieve. This form is identical to the form which is
returned by a search request. It makes it easy to use the reply
mail function to retrieve results.you can throw several search requests into one mail message 🎉 if you don't know which sources you can search, just try anything. if the source name isn't recognised, you'll get a list of sources back. 🙌
also, the retrieve line needs a blank line between each request if you're sending more than one, and the docid has to be copied exactly as the search returned it, spaces and all 🙈 non-text documents are fair game too: TEXT or WSRC docs come back straight to you, and everything else comes back UUENCODED.
4.5. Examples 🍓
when you log in to the demo site at quake.think.com, you get instant access to the directory-of-servers database through the swais client. say you want recipes that use papaya 🥭 you'd pick the recipes database and type papaya as the keyword. here's what came back:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# Score Source Title Lines
001: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Dawn's Muffins, Pt III 339
002: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Muffins 3 632
003: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pineapple 678
004: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pork and Papaya Salad 33
005: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Bread 681
006: 500 (recipes) roder@cco. Re: NONFAT BAKERY COLLECTION 423
007: 500 (recipes) shiva@hoss Re: Juice Recipes 65
008: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Prawn Salad 49
009: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: COLLECTION: Lots of Avoca 447
010: 250 (recipes) mecca@acsu Re: REQUEST: blender-made fru 29
011: 250 (recipes) Ann.Adamci Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 38
012: 250 (recipes) patth@Pani Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 49
013: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Avocados 459
014: 250 (recipes) red_trek@d Re: VEGAN: red beans and rice 78
-----------------------------------------------------------------then you can pick any of those to view, like the Pork and Papaya Salad recipe 🤤
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Subject: Pork and Papaya Salad
Message-ID: <5BBP2SB@taronga.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 06:51:47 GMT
Lines: 23
1/4 cup dried currants
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pound cooked boneless pork loin roast
1 head Belgian endive
Bibb lettuce leaves
2 papayas, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup broken walnut pieces
In a small bowl pour enough boiling water over currants to cover.
Let stand 5 minutes; drain. For dressing, in a screw-top jar
combine vinegar, oil, chicken broth, honey, and cinnamon. Cover;
shake well. Trim fat from pork; slice thinly. Separate leaves of
Belgian endive. Line 6 salad plates with lettuce leaves. Arrange
pork, endive, papaya, and avocado on plates. Sprinkle with
currants and walnuts. Drizzle dressing over salads.
Stephanie da Silva arielle@taronga.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------one thing to know: if you give more than one keyword, you'll get every document that contains any of those keywords 🧠
4.6. Learning more about WAIS 📖
a bibliography of documents, services and sources for WAIS is kept by Barbara Lincoln Brooks of WAIS Inc. 📚 you can grab it from ftp.wais.com in the directory /pub/wais-inc-doc, along with lots of other WAIS docs.
there are currently four main FTP sites for WAIS docs and software:
ftp.cnidr.orgftp.wais.comquake.think.comsunsite.unc.edu
for info on free WAIS software, contact freewais@cnidr.org 💜
- Mailing list:
wais-discussion@wais.com - To subscribe, send a mail to
wais-discussion-request@wais.com - Usenet newsgroup:
comp.infosystems.wais
and fun fact, WAIS was developed at Thinking Machines Corporation 🤓✨
5. ARCHIE 🦋
5.1. What is ARCHIE 🌈
Archie is an information system, and it's giving electronic directory service 📂 for finding information across the international TCP/IP network (the Internet).
its best-known use is scanning a database of the contents of more than 1000 anonymous FTP sites around the world 🌍 right now that database holds more than 2,100,000 file names from anonymous FTP sites. it's called the archie database, and it's iconic ✨
the files on anonymous FTP sites are software packages for various systems (Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Unix, etc.), utilities, information or documentation files, and mailing list or Usenet group discussion archives 📦 most FTP sites organize their resources hierarchically in directories and subdirectories, and the database tracks both the directory path and the file names 🗺️
the archie database gets updated automatically, so the info stays accurate 💅 and users can easily find where their files live without logging onto a bunch of different machines. main character energy for sure 👑
5.2. Who can use ARCHIE 🎀
users on any network can access the archie database by electronic mail 💌 people on the Internet have other ways to get in too (check the section Using ARCHIE below for details).
there are a few basic rules you're asked to respect when you request info from an archie server 🙏
- avoid connecting during working hours. most archie servers aren't dedicated machines, since they have local functions as well 🕰️
- make your queries as specific as possible. the response will be quicker and shorter 🎯
- user interfaces installed on your computer help reduce the load on the server sites, so please use them 💻
- use the archie server closest to you, and in particular, don't overload the transatlantic lines 🌊
5.3. How to get to ARCHIE 🗺️
okay so the archie database lives on a bunch of servers all over the world 🌍 here's the whole lineup, no cap:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Host Country |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| archie.au Australia |
| archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at Austria |
| archie.univie.ac.at Austria |
| archie.uqam.ca Canada |
| archie.funet.fi Finland |
| archie.th-darmstadt.de Germany |
| archie.doc.ic.ac.uk Great-Britain |
| archie.ac.il Israel |
| archie.unipi.it Italy |
| archie.wide.ad.jp Japan |
| archie.kyoto-u.ac.jp Japan |
| archie.hana.nm.kr Korea |
| archie.sogang.ac.kr Korea |
| archie.nz New Zealand |
| archie.rediris.es Spain |
| archie.luth.se Sweden |
| archie.switch.ch Switzerland |
| archie.ncu.edu.tw Taiwan |
| archie.ans.net USA |
| archie.internic.net USA |
| archie.rutgers.edu USA |
| archie.sura.net USA |
| archie.unl.edu USA |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+bestie there are three ways to get into the archie database 💅: a local client, an interactive Telnet session, or electronic mail. Each one gets its own little section down below in the Using ARCHIE part 🦋
5.4. Using ARCHIE 💌
the parameter format is at the very end of this section ✨ quick decoder: <> means the parameter is optional, and | means you get to pick one of the options 🎀
Note: a new version of the archie server (3.0) is now available 🔥 some of the commands for interactive access and the e-mail interface are a little different from the older versions (2.11 and before). Command formats marked with(+)are valid in version 3.0 only, and the ones marked with(*)are only acceptable in the previous versions. To find out which version is installed at the server you want to use, issue theversioncommand 💀
5.4.1. Using a local client:
using a local client is highkey the move 🫶 it gives you quick, easy, non-interactive access to the archie servers, which means better performance for the servers and a better response time for you 🌸
public domain clients for accessing archie servers are available for Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, NeXT, Unix and X-Windows 🌈 you can grab them with anonymous FTP from the archie sites, in the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients. Every one of those platforms supports a simple command line client ✨ and if you're on X-Windows there's also a graphical interface called xarchie 🦋
5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters
with a graphical interface you use the archie functions by pressing mouse buttons 🖱️ and the results show up with selectable fields so you can keep exploring 🔍
the basic archie client is a command with parameters that you type on your own machine. with most versions, if you type archie with no parameters, you'll get a list of the possible parameters plus a short description of each 💖 the format of the command is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| archie <-options> string | pattern |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+and the options are:
o: specifies an output file name to store the results (not available with all clients) 📁l: lists the result one match per line. This form is suitable for parsing by programs 🤖t: sorts the result inverted by date 🕰️m#: specifies the maximum number of matches to return (#within the range 0 to 1000). The default value is 95 🍓h archie-server: specifies an archie server to send the query to. If this parameter isn't given, the query goes to the default archie server, if one is defined 🧚L: lists known servers and the current default server 📜
the next group of options decides what kind of search happens on the database 👑 they're mutually exclusive, so you can only pick one:
s: a match occurs if the file/directory name contains string. The search is case insensitive 🙈c: same as above, but case sensitive 💅e: string must EXACTLY match (including case) the file/directory name in the database. This is the DEFAULT search method ⭐r: searches the database using pattern. It contains special characters which have to be interpreted before the search happens 🌀
there might be some slight differences in the options with different clients on different platforms, so check yours 🫠
the result is a list of FTP site addresses with files or directories matching your argument, plus the size of the file, its last modification date and its directory 📋 by default the list is sorted by host address. Check out the Examples section below for an example of archie output 🎀
5.4.2. Using Telnet:
to use an archie server interactively, telnet to one of the existing servers (check the list of servers in the How to get to ARCHIE section above 🗺️). At the login: prompt, enter archie, and the login procedure ends with you sitting at an archie> prompt 🎉 the server is ready for your requests. These are the commands you can use:
exit,quit,bye: exits archie 👋help <command-name>: invokes the on-line help. If you issue it with a command name, the help request is restricted to that topic. Pressing the RETURN key exits from the on-line help 🆘list <pattern>: gives you a list of the sites in the database and the time each one was last updated. The optional parameter limits the list to sites matching the pattern. The result is a list of site names, site IP addresses and the date of the last update in the database.listwith no pattern lists every site in the database (more than 1000 sites!) 😭 for example:
list \.de$this will list all German sites 🇩🇪
site(*) site-name: lists the directories and, recursively, the subdirectories, of site-name in the database. The result may be very long 📚whatis string: searches the database of software package descriptions for string. The search is case-insensitive 🔎prog string | patternandfind(+) string | pattern: searches the database for string or pattern, which represents the name of the resource you want to find 💫 searches can be done in a few different ways, set by thesearchvariable (setcommand), which also decides whether the parameter gets read as a string or a pattern. The result is a list of FTP site addresses with matching entries, the size of the resource, its last modification date and the directory where you can find it. The number of hits is limited by themaxhitsvariable (setcommand). The result ofprogcan be sorted different ways, depending on the value of thesortbyvariable (setcommand) ✨ by default, the variablessearch,maxhitsandsortbyare set to, respectively, exact match search on string, 1000 hits and an unsorted result list 🌸 typing the keyboard interrupt character during a search aborts it, and the results up to that point get displayed 🛑 see the Examples section below for an example of theprogcommand and its results 🦋mail <email> <,email2...>: sends the result of the last command in a mail message to the specified e-mail address(es). If you issue it with no argument, the result goes to the address in themailtovariable (setcommand) 💌show <variable>: displays the value of the given variable name. If you issue it with no argument, it displays all variables. See thesetcommand below for the possible variables 👀set variable value: sets one of archie's variables. The values of these variables affect how archie interacts with you 🎀
the variables and values are:
compress(+) compress-method: specifies the compression method (none or compress) to use before mailing a result with themailcommand. The default is none 🗜️encode(+) encode-method: specifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to use before mailing a result with themailcommand. This variable is ignored ifcompressisn't set. The default is none 🔐mailto email <,email2 ...>: specifies the e-mail address(es) to mail the result of the last command to whenmailis issued with no arguments 📬maxhits number: specifies the maximum number of matchesprogwill generate (within the range 0 to 1000). The default value is 1000 🌟search search-value: determines the kind of search the commandprog string | patterndoes on the database. The search-values are:sub: a partial and case insensitive search is performed with string on the database, e.g.:
"is" will match "islington" and "this" and "poison"subcase: same as above, but case sensitive, e.g.:
"TeX" will match "LaTeX" but not "Latex"exact: the parameter ofprog(string) must EXACTLY match (including case) the string in the database. This is the fastest search method of all, and the default 🏎️regex: the pattern is interpreted before the search is performed on the database 🧩
sortby sort-value: describes how to sort the result ofprog. The sort-values are:hostname: sorted on the FTP site address in lexical order 🌐time: sorted by the modification date, most recent first 🕰️size: sorted by the size of the found files or directories, largest first 🐘filename: sorted on the file or directory name in lexical order 🔤none: unsorted (default) 🫧
the reverse sorting orders are available too, just by putting an r in front of the sortby value (e.g., reverse hostname order: hostname becomes rhostname) 🔄
So the term command tells the archie server what kind of terminal you're rocking, and you can optionally add its size in rows and columns 💅
term terminal-type <number-of-rows <number-of-columns>>Like this, for example 🎀
set term xterm 24 1005.4.3. Using electronic mail:
Okay, so if you're only able to use email, you can still reach the archie servers 💌 Just send mail to the domain address of one of the servers listed in the How to get to ARCHIE section, like archie@archie.ac.il. Your commands go in the body of the message 🦋
The email interface understands a subset of the commands from Using Telnet. The most useful ones, plus the email-specific quirks, are below. If the message is empty, or has no valid requests in it, the server treats it as a help request 🆘
Command lines have to start in the first column. Any line that isn't a valid command just gets ignored 🙈 The Subject: line is processed as if it were part of the message body, so it counts too ✨
help
Sends you the help file. The help command is exclusive, which means any other commands in the same message get ignored 🚫
path return-address
set mailto(+) return-addressThis lets you pick a return email address that's different from the one pulled out of your message header 📬 If you don't hear back from the archie server within several hours, you might need to add a path command to your request, bestie 🫶
list pattern <pattern2 ...>Gives you a list of the sites in the database that match the pattern, plus the time each one was last updated ⏰ The result is a list with site names, site IP addresses, and the date of the last update in the database 📋
site(*) site-nameLists the directories of site-name in the database, and then, recursively, its subdirectories too 🗂️
whatis string <string2 ...>Searches the database of software package descriptions for each string. The search is case insensitive, so capitals don't matter 🔍
prog pattern <pattern2 ...>
find(+) pattern <pattern2>Searches the database for each interpretation of the pattern that represents the name of a resource you're looking for 👀 If you put multiple patterns on one line, all the results get mailed back in one message. If you have multiple prog lines, you get multiple messages, one for each prog line 💌 Results are sorted by FTP site address in lexical order. If your pattern has spaces in it, it has to be quoted with single (') or double (") quotes. The search is case insensitive, again 💅
compress(*)Makes the result of the current request get compressed and uuencoded. When the reply shows up, you should run it through uudecode. That will produce a .Z file, and then you can run uncompress on it to get the result of your request 🗜️
set compress(+) compress-methodSpecifies the compression method (none or compress) to use before the result of the current request gets mailed. The default is none 🙃
set encode(+) encode-methodSpecifies the encoding method (none or uuencode) to use before the result of the current request gets mailed. This variable is ignored if compress isn't set. The default is none 🤓
Note:set compress compressandset encode uuencodewould produce the same result as the formercompresscommand. Two ways to get the same glow-up ✨
quitNothing past this point gets interpreted 🛑 It's super useful when a signature is automatically added to the end of your mail messages 🖊️
Description of pattern
A pattern is a character string that can include characters with a special meaning. You can strip that special meaning away by putting \ in front of the character. The special characters are:
. (period) This is the wildcard character that stands in for any other character. For example, .... will match any 4 character string 🃏
^ (caret) If ^ shows up at the beginning of the pattern, the searched string has to start with the substring that comes after the ^. If it shows up anywhere else in the pattern, it's treated as regular, non-special, e.g.:
"^efghi" will match "efghi" or "efghijlk" but not
"abcefghi"$ (dollar) If $ shows up at the end of the pattern, the searched string has to end with the substring that comes before the $. If it shows up anywhere else, it's treated as non-special, e.g.:
"efghi$" will match "efghi" or "abcdefghi" but not
"efghijkl"5.5. Examples
If you're using an archie client and you enter the command:
archie -s eudoraor if you send the command below by email or during a Telnet session:
prog eudoraor
find eudorathen archie will send you these results 🎉
Host ftp.ascii.co.jp (133.152.1.1)
Last updated 03:38 8 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/MAC
DIRECTORY drwxrwxr-x 2048 bytes 00:00 6 May 1992 eudora
Host ftp.ascii.co.jp (133.152.1.1)
Last updated 03:38 8 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/MAC/eudora
FILE -r--r--r-- 281139 bytes 00:00 21 Oct 1991 eudora1.2.2.sit.hqx
Host ftp.ci.ua.pt (192.80.21.201)
Last updated 04:53 9 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
FILE -rw-r--r-- 438 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993 Eudora1.3.readme
Host ftp.ci.ua.pt (192.80.21.201)
Last updated 04:53 9 Aug 1993
Location: /pub/NetNews/comp.binaries.mac
FILE -rw-r--r-- 278912 bytes 12:04 10 Jul 1993 Eudora1.3.sit.bin
etc.If you send the command below by email or in a Telnet session:
list \.de$you'll get these results 🌍
alice.fmi.uni-passau.de 132.231.1.180 12:31 8 Aug 1993
askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de 129.13.200.33 12:25 8 Aug 1993
athene.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 15:21 6 Aug 1993
bseis.eis.cs.tu-bs.de 134.169.33.1 00:18 31 Jul 1993
clio.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de 134.99.128.3 12:10 8 Aug 1993
cns.wtza-berlin.de 141.16.244.4 16:08 31 Jul 1993
etc.If you send the command below by email or in a Telnet session:
whatis compressionyou'll get these results 🗜️
RFC 468 Braden, R.T. FTP data compression 1973 March 8; 5p.
arc PC compression program
deltac Image compression using delta modulation
spl Splay tree compression routines
squeeze A file compression program
uncrunch Uncompression program
unsqueeze Uncompression programs5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE
However you communicate with the archie server, on-line help is available 🆘
If you have any questions about archie, write to the Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc. at info@bunyip.com 💌
Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to archie-group@bunyip.com 🐛 In addition, the database administrator at a particular archie server can be contacted at archie-admin@address.of.archie.server, e.g.: archie-admin@archie.ac.il 🧑💻
Mailing list: archie-people@bunyip.com To subscribe, send a mail to: archie-people-request@bunyip.com 🦋
Archie was developed by Alan Emtage, Peter Deutsch, and Bill Heelan from the McGill University Computing Center, Canada. Now archie is supported by Bunyip Information System Inc., Canada. 🌸
6.1. WHOIS
6.1. What is WHOIS
WHOIS provides directory service to network users 📇 It's a way of finding email addresses, postal addresses, and telephone numbers. It may also deliver information about networks, networking organizations, domains, and sites 🌐
The main database of networking-related names (organizations, sites, networks, people, etc.) is maintained by the Internet Registration Service (InterNIC). Actually, the names of the administrative and technical contacts for registered domains get entered into the database automatically when domain or IP number applications are processed by the Internet coordination authority 🤖 Each entry in the database has a handle (a unique identifier), a name, a record type, and various other fields depending on the type of record. This database will be used as an example in the descriptions below 🎀
Before April 1, 1993, the Network Information Center (NIC) of the Defense Data Network (DDN) was the Internet coordination authority and, therefore, maintained the database (known as the NIC database). The NIC database is now restricted to information about the .mil domain. Many documents still refer to these names 📜
Many academic sites maintain their own database to offer information about their staff members and students 🎓
In its current implementation, WHOIS has some limitations that stop it from becoming an efficient directory service for a large volume of information and lots of requests 😭 The various WHOIS servers have no knowledge of each other, a database is maintained at each server site, and, finally, new functionalities have been implemented locally at various sites and never propagated. A new extended protocol, WHOIS++, is being specified to improve the current service. WHOIS++ will include local enhancements to the WHOIS service and an improved query syntax, and its architecture will allow a real distributed directory service for the entire Internet 👑
This new protocol for directory services will be made available shortly. ⏳
6.2. Who can use WHOIS
WHOIS is available to users on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) 🌈
A WHOIS server is accessible across the network from a user program running on local machines, or via an interactive Telnet session to the site that hosts the server 💻
In addition, the InterNIC offers an electronic mail interface to the database it maintains, which lets users who aren't on the Internet, or who only have electronic mail, access this information. This type of access is described below in the Using WHOIS section 📧
In general, WHOIS servers should only be used for isolated queries about specific information. Typically, it is not acceptable to make an extended series of queries to obtain large sections of the directory. That's unfair, both because of excessive consumption of server resources and because the directory information belongs to individuals 🙅♀️ In particular, extracting lists of people for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited 🚫
6.3. How to get to WHOIS
There are many WHOIS servers throughout the network, and a comprehensive list would be too long to include here 📚 A WHOIS server offers information about the organization it belongs to. It doesn't share a common directory with other WHOIS servers, and it doesn't know where to find information about other institutions 🧚
6.4. Using WHOIS 🎀
okay so WHOIS is the name everyone uses for the user program that digs through a WHOIS database, even though the original name was NICNAME 🙈 the vibe is iconic either way. In the sections below, angle brackets (<>) mark an optional parameter 💅
6.4.1. Using a local client
Unix computers have a native whois command 💖 on non-Unix machines, ask your system administrator if your computer has it, bestie 🫶 This command searches the database on the site you name for an entry that contains identifier. The format is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| whois <-h site-name> identifier |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
site-nameis the domain address of the site that hosts the database you want to query (e.g., whois.internic.net). On some installations, the default value is still set to the old NIC database site (nic.ddn.mil). 🌸identifieris a name (person, host, domain or network), an IP number or a handle. ✨
Special characters can go inside identifier to customize the search, and they're giving main character energy 👑
.beforeidentifierwill cause a name-only search.!beforeidentifierwill cause a handle-only search.... or .afteridentifierwill cause a partial search: everything starting withidentifierwill match.@inidentifierwill cause a search on the e-mail addresses.*beforeidentifierwill return the entire membership list of the entry that matchesidentifier(e.g., a site and its registered users).%beforeidentifierwill return only the membership list of the entry that matchesidentifier(e.g., the registered users of a site).
The special characters may be used together 🦋
The results show up in one of 2 ways:
- a full detailed display for a single match, 🧚
- a list of summary lines for multiple matches. 🍓
In both cases, the handle is shown in parentheses after the name 💜
6.4.2. Using Telnet
To access the InterNIC database interactively, telnet to the InterNIC site (whois.internic.net). No login is required, so no password drama 😭
Other WHOIS databases may have Telnet access and offer most of the functions below (e.g., whois.ripe.net, which hosts the WHOIS database of the European IP Networks). 🌈
In the following, CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable abbreviation, and angle brackets (<>) mark an optional parameter 💅
WHOISinvokes the information retrieval program. 🎀?displays a short on-line help. 💖HElpaccesses the full on-line help. ✨Q,QUIT,RETURNkey exits WHOIS 👋<keyword> identifiersearches the database for an entry that containsidentifier. The default action is to do a broad search, looking for matches in many fields: handle, name, nicknames, hostname, IP number, etc, and finding all record types.keywordmay be used to narrow the search to a specific record type. 🔥
keyword may be one of:
PErsonlimits the search to persons. 🙋DOmainlimits the search to domains (e.g.,DO EARN.NET). 🌐HOstlimits the search to hosts (e.g.,HO PRINCETON). 🖥️NEtworklimits the search to networks (e.g.,NE EBONE). 🛜Organizationlimits the search to organizations (e.g.,O CREN). 🏢NAmeis the same as a leading.inidentifier. 📛HAndleis the same as!inidentifier. 🪪PArtialis the same as a trailing.inidentifier. ✂️Mailboxis the same as@inidentifier. 📧EXPandis the same as*inidentifier. 🌟SUBdisplayis the same as%inidentifier. 🫧Fullor=shows the detailed display for each match. 🔍SUMmaryor$shows the summary always, even if there's just one match. 📝
Special characters can go inside identifier to customize the search 💖
.beforeidentifierwill cause a name-only search.!beforeidentifierwill cause a handle-only search.... or .afteridentifierwill cause a partial search: everything starting withidentifierwill match.@inidentifierwill cause a search on the e-mail addresses.*beforeidentifierwill return the entire membership list of the entry that matchesidentifier(e.g., a site and its registered users).%beforeidentifierwill return only the membership list of the entry that matchesidentifier(e.g., the registered users of a site).~beforeidentifierwill return the entry that matchesidentifieronly, no membership list. 🧁
The special characters may be used together 🦋
Except when Full or SUMmary is specified, the results show up in one of 2 ways:
- a full detailed display for a single match, 🧚
- a list of summary lines for multiple matches. 🍓
In all cases, the handle is shown in parentheses after the name 💜
6.4.3. Using electronic mail
Users who only have electronic mail connectivity can still send requests to the database maintained at the InterNIC by mailing mailserv@internic.net 💌 The commands go in the Subject: field. The body part of the mail is ignored, except if the Subject: line is empty. In that case, only the first line is interpreted 🤓
This electronic mail interface recognizes all commands described in Using Telnet. Requests should be prefixed with the word WHOIS. Requests are processed automatically once a day ⏰
6.5. Examples ✨
If you are using a local client and enter the command:
whois \!EARN... (remark: "\" is an escape character)or if you send the command by e-mail:
whois !EARN...then you will get the following results 🎉
EARN (EARN-HST) SEINE.EARN.NET 193.52.216.1
European Academic Research Network (EARN-DOM) EARN.NET
To obtain detailed information on the second item, enter or send
the command:
whois EARN-DOM
then you will get the following result:
European Academic Research Network (EARN-DOM)
EARN Office
PSI - Batiment 211
91405 Orsay CEDEX
FRANCE
Domain Name: EARN.NET
Administrative Contact:
Bovio, Daniele (DB355) hi@EARNCC.EARN.NET
+33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 6683
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Grange, Nadine (NG4) grange@EARNCC.EARN.NET
+33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 6683
Record last updated on 15-Dec-93.
Domain servers in listed order:
SEINE.EARN.NET 193.52.216.1
DNS.NIS.GARR.IT 192.12.192.5,131.114.2.5
LUMIERE.CIRCE.FR 130.84.8.14For a partial search, enter:
whois hi@ear...then you will get the following result:
Bovio, Daniele (DB355) hi@EARNCC.EARN.NET
EARN
EARN Office
PSI - BP Batiment 211
91405 ORSAY CEDEX, France
FR
+33 1 6941 2426 (FAX) +33 1 6941 66836.6. Learning more about WHOIS 📚
The WHOIS service is documented in an Internet Request For Comments (RFC 1400) 🦋
If you have any questions about WHOIS, write to action@internic.net 💖
Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to action@internic.net 🫶
7. X.500 🌌
7.1. What is X.500 🧠
X.500 is an OSI (Open System Information) based directory services protocol designed by the CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee). 📖
X.500 provides distributed directory services to network users. The X.500 directory specifies a model for connecting directory services to form one distributed global directory. Each directory service holds a part of the global database, and the directory information is made available via a server (called a Directory System Agent - DSA). The database is maintained locally. From the user point of view, the entire directory is accessible from the local server 🪄
While most of the information available today via X.500 is about people and organizations, the design of the X.500 directory is also suitable for storing information about other entities (or objects), such as network resources, applications or hardware. Several projects are underway that use these directory capabilities (e.g., the Internet RFCs (Request For Comments) are listed in the global directory) 🗂️
Each item (entry) in the X.500 directory describes one object (e.g., a person, a network resource, an organization) and has a Distinguished Name - DN (a unique identifier). It consists of a collection of attributes (e.g., last name, organization name, e-mail,... - for a person). The information held in the X.500 directory (or Directory Information Base - DIB) is arranged hierarchically. This organization is called the Directory Information Tree (DIT). At the top level is the root entry (the World), then the country level, then the organization level, and, eventually, the people, the resources, etc., at the bottom level of the hierarchy 🌳
7.2. Who can use X.500 🙌
Although X.500 is part of the OSI standard definition, OSI access is not necessary to use the directory services. Many X.500 services are available on the Internet. In addition, users on any network can access the X.500 directory by electronic mail. See the section Using X.500 below for details 💅
7.3. How to get to X.500 🦋
okay so there are three ways to get into the X.500 services 🗺️: a local client, an interactive session (Telnet or X.25 access), or electronic mail 💌. Each type of access gets its own explanation down in the Using X.500 section, so keep scrolling bestie ✨
Other network tools (e.g., WWW and Gopher) can also reach X.500 directory services through gateways 🌐. Slay.
Honestly, the easiest way to start querying the X.500 directory is to use a remote client 💅. Some sites allow public access via Telnet or X.25 to a client. The public access user interfaces live here:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Telnet (login) Public X.25 (login) Country |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| jethro.ucc.su.oz.au (fred) Australia |
| elem4.vub.ac.be (dua) 222100611 Belgium |
| login.dkuug.dk (ds) Denmark |
| nic.funet.fi (dua) Finland |
| 20800603053201 France |
| (login: dua, password: ucom.x) France |
| 26245050230303 Germany |
| ashe.cs.tcd.ie (de) Ireland |
| jolly.nis.garr.it (de or fred) 22225010083212 Italy |
| zoek.nic.surfnet.nl (zoek) Netherlands|
| elc1.mat.torun.edu.pl (de or dish) Poland |
| chico.rediris.es (directorio) 2142160234013 Spain |
| hypatia.umdc.umu.se (de) 240374810306 Sweden |
| nic.switch.ch (dua) 22847971014540 Switzerland|
| paradise.ulcc.ac.uk (dua) 23421920014853 Paradise |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Paradise is a European project to encourage the use of X.500 in European countries 🇪🇺💖
To connect to one of these sites, pick an access method (Telnet or X.25) and type the specified login at the login: prompt, if one is required 🫶
7.4. Using X.500 💻
X.500 does data management too: addition, modification and deletion of entries 📝. But the real star is its powerful lookup capabilities 🔍. It's mainly used for lookup, aka querying a database for info on a person (postal address, telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) 💌. The basic fields for searching are the person's name, the name of the person's organization (and department within the organization), and the country 🌸.
In the following, angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter; a vertical bar (|) indicates a choice of parameters 🧚.
7.4.1. Using a local client 💁
In X.500 land, a local client is called a Directory User Agent (DUA) 🧑💻. Public domain and commercial DUAs are available for numerous platforms, ranging from mainframes to personal computers 🖥️. For a comprehensive list of DUAs, their descriptions and where to find them, consult the Internet document RFC 1292 - A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations 📚.
DUAs range from simple line commands to sophisticated graphical user interfaces that need a pointing device 🖱️.
7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25 🛸
Here's the vibe: 3 categories of user interfaces might be available at the remote site 👀:
- line-oriented:
de,dish,fred - menu-driven:
sd(formerly known aswidget) - X-Windows-based:
Xdi,Xlookup(orxlu),pod
Capabilities range from basic search facilities to full X.500 functionality 💫.
de (directory enquiries) is recommended for novice users since it's a very simple user interface 🍓. It was designed to run as a public access DUA and is accessible from any kind of terminal 📟. It supports the basic X.500 functions: read, search, list. The Simple query mode is suitable for those who are new to querying the X.500 directory 🎀.
Here's the command cheat sheet:
de: invokes the X.500 interrogation user interface.q: exitsde.?<topic>: displays the on-line help on the specified topic or general help.^C(Ctrl-C): is the interrupt character. It aborts a search in progress or resets the current query specification.*(asterisk): will list all entries of the specified field. It is also the wildcard character and can replace any other character in a name. It can appear anywhere in the name, e.g.:smit*or*smit*are valid string formats.-: resets the default value to a blank string.
When de is invoked, the user is asked to fill in 4 fields to specify a request. In all fields, the value from the previous request is the default value. Press the RETURN key to accept it, or enter a new value. All searches are case insensitive 🙈.
The four fields to fill in are:
- Person's name: Wildcard characters may be used anywhere in the name. All matching names will be listed. Typing only
"*"will match all people of the specified department or organization. If this field is blank, the search will be on department or organization only. - Department name: the name (or an acronym) of the department in the organization where the person works. Wildcard characters may be used anywhere in the name. Typing only
"*"will match all departments. If no person's name has been entered, details on the department are displayed, otherwise the search is carried out with the selected name. If no department name is given, all departments will be searched. This field could be omitted in small organizations. - Organization name: the name (or an acronym) of the organization where the person works. Wildcard characters may be used anywhere in the name. Typing only
"*"will match all organizations. If no person's name or department name has been entered, details on the organization are displayed, otherwise the search is carried out with the selected name. - Country name: the name of the country where the person works. Typing
"*"will list all countries. The country name could be the 2-letter country code (e.g.,DKstands for Denmark), the name or a part of it without wildcards (e.g.,netherinstead of The Netherlands).
If a big pile of matching entries turns up, they're listed so you can pick one and get the full details 🔎.
7.4.3. Using electronic mail 📧
The Norwegian networking organization (UNINETT) offers an e-mail interface to X.500 📮. To use it, send a mail message to Directory@UNINETT.NO with the word find in the Subject: field. The body part contains the search request, one per message.
The format of the search request is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| find <person-name> <: org-name <; country-name>> | |
| <; country-name> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+If org-name and country-name are omitted, the sender's organization name and country name are used as default values. The mail interface guesses these values from the From: field of your mail, so the results can be surprising if your address ends with .bitnet! 🙃
"*" (asterisk) is the wildcard character and can replace any other characters in any name. It can appear anywhere in the name.
The result of the query is sent back in a mail message. The search is case insensitive 💜.
Note: To avoid overloading the directory service, users are not allowed to search for a person without selecting an organization. To receive a help file, send the word help instead of a find command. 🫶
7.5. Examples
Okay, let's look at some real examples 💅 Using de, you can search for the Anthropoloy department of the University College of London in United Kingdom with this request:
Person's name, q to quit, * to browse, ? for help
:-
Department name, * to browse, ? for help
:- a*
Organisation name, * to browse, ? for help
:- ucl
Country name, * to browse, ? for help
:- ukA few entries match the selected department, and they're all listed so you can pick one 🎀
United Kingdom
University College London
Got the following matches. Please select one from the list
by typing the number corresponding to the entry you want.
United Kingdom
University College London
1 A.U.T. Office
2 American Institute for Foreign Study
3 Anatomy and Developmental Biology
4 Anthropology
5 Audio Visual Centre
Department name, * to browse, ? for help
:- 4
United Kingdom
University College London
Anthropology
Telephone Number +44 71-387-7050 x2455
fax +44 71 380 7728Now say you're looking for Erik Lawaetz from UNI-C in Denmark 🇩🇰 You can enter this request, and the default values come from the previous request 🦋
Person's name, q to quit, * to browse, ? for help
:- law*
Department name, * to browse, <CR> to search all depts, ?
for help
:-
Organisation name, * to browse, ? for help
:- uni-c
Country name, * to browse, ? for help
:- dkOnly one entry matches the criteria, so the details get displayed straight away 🤩
Denmark
UNI-C
Erik Lawaetz
postalAddress UNI-C
DTH
Bygning 305
DK-2800 Lyngby
Telephone Number +45 45 93 83 55
+45 42 88 39 99 x2018
fax +45 45 93 02 20
electronic mail Erik.Lawaetz@uni-c.dkNext, you can also send mail to Directory@UNINETT.NO with a request like this one 📬
find geir ped* : *oslo ; noAnd you'll get a reply like this one 💌
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This message is in response to your request to the directory to
find
geir ped* : *oslo ; no
This is interpreted as a request to find a person with a name
matching "geir ped*" in an organisation with name matching
"*oslo" in a country with a name matching "no".
There were 8 organisations with a name matching the
organizational name you specified. Within those organisations
there were 7 persons that had a name matching the personal name
you specified. Directory information for the located persons is
shown below.
Geir Pedersen : Universitetet i Oslo ; Norway
Alternate Geir Kenneth Pedersen
Alternate Geir K. Pedersen
E-Mail (RFC) Geir.Pedersen@usit.uio.no
E-Mail (X.400) /G=geir/S=pedersen/OU=usit/O=uio/PRMD=uninett/
ADMD= /C=no/
Postal Address Postboks 1059 - Blindern
0316 Oslo 3
NORWAY
Phone +47-22-852478
Phone +47-22-852470 (front-office)
Fax-phone +47-22-852730
Description Project leader for UNINETTs X.500 projects
User ID geirp
Favorite Drink Farris
Street Address Gaustadalleen 23
Home Address Gaustadveien 17A
0372 Oslo 3
NORWAY
See also Geir Pedersen : UNINETT ; Norway
Entry updated Tue Jun 15 11:51:31 1993
-----------------------------------------------------------------and 6 other entries 👀
7.6. Learning more about X.500
Several Internet RFC documents cover X.500 📚 Here they are:
RFC 1292: A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations.RFC 1308: Executive Introduction to Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol,RFC 1309: Technical Overview of Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol,
The official source of info on X.500 is the X.500 recommendation published by the CCITT 🧠 It's the Blue Book, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII.8, Data Communication Networks Directory, Recommendations X.500-X.521, CCITT, 1988, ISBN 92-61-03731-3. This document is also available electronically: send the command GET ITU-5233 to itudoc@itu.ch, or check out the ITU document store via Gopher at gopher.itu.ch. Heads up though, this is not intended for the casual user! 🙈
8. NETFIND
8.1. What is NETFIND
NETFIND is an Internet user directory tool, and it gives you a simple Internet white pages directory facility 🤍
Give it the name of a person on the Internet plus a rough idea of where they work, and Netfind attempts to locate telephone and electronic mailbox information about them 🔍 It does this using a seed database of domains and hosts in the network.
Netfind finds info about people through the Internet protocols SMTP and finger. If the person you're looking for is at a site that isn't directly connected to the Internet (for example, the site is connected only through a mail forwarding gateway), Netfind lets you know that the person can not be found 😭
Because Netfind's search procedures are dynamic and Internet availability varies, you can get different results for the same search on different occasions 🎢
The Netfind software can only run on Suns running SunOS 4.0 or more recent. ☀️
8.2. Who can use NETFIND
You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) to use Netfind. Also, Netfind can only find info on users who are on the Internet 🌐
There is no e-mail access to Netfind. 📭
8.3. How to get to NETFIND
You can access Netfind through software at your site (local access). Or you can use Telnet to access it at one of the hosts below (remote access), and log in as netfind. No password is needed ✨
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Host Country |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| archie.au Australia |
| netfind.anu.edu.au Australia |
| netfind.ee.mcgill.ca Canada |
| malloco.ing.puc.cl Chile |
| netfind.vslib.cz Czech Republic |
| monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk England |
| nic.nm.kr Korea |
| lincoln.technet.sg Singapore |
| nic.uakom.sk Slovakia |
| bruno.cs.colorado.edu USA |
| ds.internic.net USA |
| mudhoney.micro.umn.edu USA |
| netfind.oc.com USA |
| redmont.cis.uab.edu USA |
| dino.conicit.ve Venezuela |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+8.4. Using NETFIND ✨
Okay so bestie, to use Netfind you give it the name of a person and some keywords about where that person works 💅. After you set up your search, Netfind checks its seed database for domains that match your keywords. If more than one domain matches, it shows you the list and asks you to pick up to three to search 🫶. If your keys match more than 100 domains, Netfind lists some of the matching domains/organizations and asks you to make a more specific search 😭. You can use any part of an organization's name (or any of the components of its domain name) as a key 🎀. Using more than one key implies the logical AND of the keys. Specifying too many keys may cause searches to fail, so don't go overboard 💀.
When the search finishes (or when you interrupt it with <circ>C), Netfind gives you a summary 🌸. The summary covers problems searching remote domains, info about the most promising e-mail address for the person you're hunting (if it can find one), and info about when and where that person most recently logged in or is currently logged in (if available). If a search locates more than one person, the summary leaves out the e-mail targets and most recent/current logins, since only you can decide which person was the correct one 🙈
8.4.1. Local access:
The Netfind command looks like this, and these are the options you can add 🧚
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| netfind <options> name-keyword place-keywords |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Here's what the options do:
-htells Netfind to skip the domain search phase and immediately start searching individual machines found in the seed database. This one exists for measurement purposes, so it's not of much use to casual users 🙈-sdisables usage of the SMTP protocol during searches. This is mainly useful for measurement purposes. Without this protocol, searches start producing finger output slightly sooner, but they'll often search less useful machines, generate more Internet load, and fail to find info for users at sites that don't support finger (such as many companies) 💀-treports how many timeouts occurred. The-Toption sets the timeout interval to the number of seconds you specify. You might need it to increase the timeout value for intercontinental searches 🌍-Dsets the maximum number of domains Netfind will search at once. The default is 3. It may seem convenient to set a high value, but the advice is not to do that 💅 The search will actually proceed faster (and waste less Internet bandwidth) if a small number of well-chosen domains are searched 🦋-Hsets the maximum number of machines that will be searched by Netfind. The default value is 50. Again, the advice is not to set this value higher 🫶-mdisplays measurement information. If no filename is specified, measurements are output to stderr. The packet count estimates are usually exaggerated, because they make pessimistic assumptions about the state of the Domain Naming System 📊-dlets you turn on various classes of debugging output (all of which go to stderr), using a letter for each one. You give it a list of letters, e.g.,-dslf. The classes are:c: display control messages (check if the program has reached a specified point)f: display finger related messagesh: list machine names found in the seed databasel: display lock related messages (when entering monitors)m: display messages about mail protocol (SMTP)n: display messages about network failuresr: display hosts matched from the seed database that were rejected from searches because of search scope selections: display system call related messagest: display thread related messagesA: convert the above flags to mean their complement (example-dAtmeans produce all debug output except that for threads)
The letters most likely to be of interest to casual users are f, m, and n. By default, these options are enabled. Specifying any of these three flags with -d on the command line will disable them, so -d toggles the default behavior of each of the flags 🔥
The name keyword specifies the person being sought by first, last, or login name. Only one name can be specified 🎀
The place keywords describe where the person works, by either the name of the institution or the city/state/country. If you know the institution's domain name (e.g., cs.colorado.edu, where there are host names like brazil.cs.colorado.edu) you can specify it as keys without the dots (e.g., cs colorado edu). The host parts of domain names (brazil) cannot be used as keywords. Keys are case insensitive and may be specified in any order, although using a very common key (like university) first will cause internal buffers to overflow and some domains to be missed 😭
Using more than one key implies the logical and of the keys. Specifying too many keys may cause searches to fail. If this happens, try specifying fewer keys 💖
8.4.2. Remote access:
Telnet to one of the remote Netfind sites (see How to get to NETFIND, above) and log in as netfind. No password is necessary. You'll get this menu:
Top level choices:
1. Help
2. Search
3. Seed database lookup
4. Options
5. Quit (exit server)If you select Search, you'll get the chance to enter a name keyword and place keywords 🌈
8.5. Examples 🎀
Say you want the e-mail address of Nadine Grange, who works at the EARN office at CIRCE in France. You could try the keywords:
nadine circe france
Since more than three domains fit those place keywords, you're asked to pick a few. The search then proceeds using the domains you choose 👑
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Please select at most 3 of the following domains to search:
0. circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsay ce
1. ciripa.circe.fr (centre inter-regional de calcul electronique, c
2. dnet.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, ors
3. ibmmail.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
4. obspm.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, or
5. oecd.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, ors
6. phy.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsa
7. ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique, orsa
8. cth.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
9. lure.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifique,
10. lps.cth.ups.circe.fr (centre national de la recherche scientifi
Enter selection (e.g., 2 0 1) --> 0
( 1) check_name: checking domain circe.fr. Level = 0
Search of domains completed. Proceeding to search of hosts.
( 3) check_name: checking host loire.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 4) check_name: checking host solrt.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 5) check_name: checking host groucho.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 1) check_name: checking host rsovax.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 2) check_name: checking host ventura.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 1) do_connect: Finger service not available on host rsovax.circe.
( 1) check_name: checking host earn-ng.circe.fr. Level = 0
( 4) check_name: checking host luregate.circe.fr. Level = 0
SYSTEM: loire.circe.fr
Login name: nadine In real life: Nadine Grange
Directory: /home/nadine Shell: /bin/csh
On since Sep 7 08:48:05 on ttyp0 4 days 21 hours Idle Time
New mail received Sun Sep 12 00:00:08 1993;
unread since Fri Sep 10 11:53:17 1993
No Plan.
Login name: nadine In real life: Nadine Grange
Directory: /home/nadine Shell: /bin/csh
On since Sep 7 09:17:09 on ttyp6 1 day 12 hours Idle Time
SUMMARY:
- "nadine" is currently logged in from
loire.circe.fr, since Sep 7 09:17:09.
- The most promising email address for "nadine"
based on the above search is
nadine@loire.circe.fr.
----------------------------------------------------------------Note that Netfind found only an Internet address on a Unix machine 👀
8.6. Learning more about NETFIND 🧚
The remote access version of Netfind has a large Help section. There's also a set of frequently asked questions available with the software release, in the Doc directory. These questions cover Functionality, Methodology, Network and Remote Site Load, Privacy, Future Directions, and Related Work 📚
A noteworthy article on Netfind is:
Experience with a Semantically Cognizant Internet White Pages Directory Tool, by M. F. Schwartz and P. G. Tsirigotis, Journal of Internetworking Research and Experience, March 1991, pp. 23-50.
This publication discusses the research principles, performance, and scope measurements of Netfind, and compares it with other white pages facilities 🌸
There's a mailing list for Netfind users (for software updates and other discussions). To be added to the list, send an e-mail message to netfind-users-request@cs.colorado.edu with the body (not subject line) subscribe netfind-users 💌
9. TRICKLE 🦋
9.1. What is TRICKLE 💖
TRICKLE is a service which will send you files on request or by subscription. It works with various anonymous FTP sites (computers in the Internet network that allow public access and retrieval of software and files). It's a quick and easy alternative to FTP, whether or not you have access to the Internet ✨
There are several TRICKLE servers throughout the world that cooperate to distribute the files efficiently. To request files, the user issues commands to the nearest TRICKLE server, which delivers the software either from its local cache disk, from the cache of another TRICKLE server, or from an FTP site that holds the software 🚀
9.2. Who can use TRICKLE 🌍
Okay so there are TRICKLE servers at these addresses, bestie 💖
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Location EARN/BITNET Internet |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Austria TRICKLE@AWIWUW11 TRICKLE@awiwuw11.wu-wien.ac.at|
| Colombia TRICKLE@UNALCOL TRICKLE@unalcol.unal.edu.co |
| France TRICKLE@FRMOP11 TRICKLE@frmop11.cnusc.fr |
| Germany TRICKLE@DEARN TRICKLE@vm.gmd.de |
| Israel TRICKLE@TAUNIVM TRICKLE@vm.tau.ac.il |
| Italy TRICKLE@IMIPOLI TRICKLE@imipoli.cdc.polimi.it |
| Netherlands TRICKLE@HEARN TRICKLE@hearn.nic.surfnet.nl |
| Poland TRICKLE@PLEARN TRICKLE@plearn.edu.pl |
| Sweden TRICKLE@SEARN TRICKLE@searn.sunet.se |
| Turkey TRICKLE@TREARN TRICKLE@ege.edu.tr |
| Turkey TRICKLE@TRMETU TRICKLE@3090.cc.metu.edu.tr |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+When you send a command to a TRICKLE server, it either executes the command or sends you a message with the address of the TRICKLE server for your area. ✨
The files available from TRICKLE are organized in main directories, and each of those contains lots of subdirectories. 📂 The main directories that are currently available are:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Directory Source FTP Site Contents |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| MSDOS oak.oakland.edu Large MS-DOS software archive|
| MISC oak.oakland.edu Software for VM, VMS, Unix |
| SIGM oak.oakland.edu SIG/M CP/M archive |
| PC-BLUE oak.oakland.edu PC-BLUE MS-DOS archive |
| CPM oak.oakland.edu CP/M software archive |
| ARCHIVES oak.oakland.edu Various discussion group arc.|
| UNIX-C oak.oakland.edu Unix and C code software arc.|
| MACINTOS oak.oakland.edu Apple Macintosh software arc.|
| OS2 2tp-os2.nmsu.edu Large archive of OS/2 sw |
| AMIGA nic.funet.fi Large Amiga collection |
| KERMIT watsun.cc.columbia.edu Kermit network software |
| TEX rusinfo.rus.uni-stuttgart.de TeX software and fonts |
| WUARCHIVE wuarchive.wustl.edu MS-DOS and others |
| EXPO-MIT export.lcs.mit.edu Unix and others |
| UUNET ftp.uu.net Unix and others |
| SUMEX-AIM sumex-aim.stanford.edu Macintosh and others |
| GARFIELD garfield.catt.ncsu.edu Multimedia (pictures/sounds) |
| X11 export.lcs.mit.edu X-Windows software distrib. |
| LINUX nic.funet.fi Linux system software dist. |
| VM-CMS ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu VM/CMS utilities |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Not every directory is available at every server. 🫣 If your closest server doesn't have the directory you want, you can use any other TRICKLE for that missing directory. And if your closest server is temporarily unavailable, you can just use any other TRICKLE instead. 🫶
9.3. How to get to TRICKLE 📬
You send commands to TRICKLE by electronic mail. Put the commands in the body of the mail message, one command per line. You can fit any number of commands in one message, as long as you stay under your daily command limit. 💌 Users on the EARN/Bitnet network can also send commands to TRICKLE by interactive message. 💜
9.4. Using TRICKLE 💅
All commands begin with a slash (/). Heads up, the angle brackets (<>) are part of the command itself, not a sign that something is optional. 🙈
Use the /PDDIR command to get directory listings. 📋
/PDDIR
/PDDIR <dirname>
/PDDIR <dirname.subdirname>patternwhere:
dirnameis the name of a main directory,subdirnameis the name of a subdirectory,patternis part of a filename.
Just send /PDDIR with no parameters to get a list of the main directories. Add a directory name, like PDDIR <dirname>, and you'll get the subdirectories under that directory. If you give both a directory and a subdirectory, you'll get the files available in that subdirectory. Add a pattern and you'll only see the files that match or start with that pattern. 🔍 You can put wildcards ? and * inside subdirname and pattern (? matches any single character, and * matches any number of characters). 🧚
Use the /PDGET command to get files. 📥
/PDGET <dirname.subdirname>filename ( delivery-optionwhere:
dirnameis the name of a main directory,subdirnameis the name of a subdirectory,filenameis the name of a file.
delivery-option sets the format the file(s) get translated into before they're sent to you. The possible values are:
EBC80 UUE XXE HEX BTOAThe EBC80 option is what you want for text files if you work on an IBM mainframe system. 🖥️ The other options are formats for translating binary files so they can travel through electronic mail. You'll need a program to translate the file back into its original form afterwards. 🔄 By default, EARN/Bitnet users get the file as-is, and everyone else gets UUE. 💖
Wildcards ? and * can go inside subdirname and filename (? matches any single character, and * matches any number of characters), so you can grab several files at once. 🎀
The /SUB command is how you subscribe to directories or individual files. 🔔
/SUB <dirname>
/SUB <dirname.subdirname>pattern
/SUB QUERYwhere:
dirnameis the name of a main directory,subdirnameis the name of a subdirectory,patternis part of a filename.
If you subscribe to a directory, you'll get a summary of added files about once a week, depending on how busy the FTP site is. ⏰ That summary lists the name, size and date of each file that was added. If you subscribe to a file, a copy of the file gets sent to you as soon as TRICKLE hears that a new version has been stored at its FTP site. 🦋
Heads up: filenames usually include the version number, so it's a good idea to leave the number out when you write a pattern. ⚠️ For example, send this:
/SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANVrather than this:
/SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANV106The reason is that as new versions get stored, the name might change to SCANV107, SCANV108, and so on. 🌸
Wildcards are not allowed with the /SUB command. 🚫
The /SUB QUERY command gives you a list of the files you're subscribed to. 📜
The /UNSUB command can be used to cancel a subscription. ✂️
/UNSUB <dirname>
/UNSUB <dirname.subdirname>patternwhere:
dirnameis the name of a main directory,subdirnameis the name of a subdirectory,patternis part of a filename.
Sending /UNSUB * will terminate all of your directory and file subscriptions. 💀
9.5. Examples 🎀
To get a listing of the files in the VIRUS subdirectory of the MSDOS directory, send:
/PDDIR <MSDOS.VIRUS>To get the file 00-INDEX.TXT from <MSDOS.VIRUS> in EBCDIC format, send:
/PDGET <MSDOS.VIRUS>00-INDEX.TXT ( EBC80If you aren't sure of the exact filename, wildcards have your back:
/PDGET <MSDOS.VIR*>*INDEX* ( EBC80To automatically get new versions of the SCANV software from <MSDOS.VIRUS>, subscribe with:
/SUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>SCANVTo unsubscribe from all files in the VIRUS subdirectory, send:
/UNSUB <MSDOS.VIRUS>*9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE 📚
You can send the /HELP command to any TRICKLE server to get a very detailed help file from it. 🆘
There's also a brief guide to TRICKLE in the EARN documentation filelist. Send mail to LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). In the body of the message, write:
GET TRICKLE MEMO10. BITFTP ✨
10.1. What is BITFTP 🦋
BITFTP, the BITNET FTP Server, lets users of EARN, Bitnet and associated networks reach FTP sites on the Internet. 🌐
The BITFTP server is a mail interface between a user on the EARN/Bitnet network and FTP sites on the Internet. 💌 It works by passing the commands from the user's mail message to another server, and that server is the one that actually makes the connection to the FTP sites. 🔌 Once the server is done with the FTP site, or if it fails because of an error, a transcript of the result gets sent back to the user, along with the requested file(s), if there are any. 📨
You can define the format of the files that get sent to you right inside the mail message. BITFTP can deliver files in netdata and uuencode formats. 🎁
10.2. Who can use BITFTP 👑
BITFTP is currently available only to users on EARN, Bitnet and other regional NJE networks. 🔒 It does not support multiple file requests via the mget command, and it doesn't support sending files to FTP sites (the put command). 🙅♀️
10.3. How to get to BITFTP ✨
okay so bestie, there are BITFTP servers running at these spots 🌍:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| BITFTP@DEARN.BITNET or BITFTP@VM.GMD.DE Germany |
| BITFTP@PUCC.BITNET or BITFTP@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU USA |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+the rules are kinda specific 🙈 Only users on the EARN/Bitnet international network can use the US server. Only users from EARN member countries can use the server in Germany. Servers at other locations are planned, so keep an eye out 👀
BITFTP takes requests by electronic mail, including IBM NOTE and PROFS-format messages, and also by NJE file transfer 📬
10.4. Using BITFTP 💅
BITFTP implements a large subset of the FTP commands from IBM's TCP/IP for VM, and it uses the same syntax 🧚 The software is documented in the IBM manual TCP/IP for VM User's Guide. In the stuff below, angle brackets (<>) mean an optional parameter.
Use the ftp command to pick which host you want to connect to. This command must be the first command in your mail file. You can also set the file format you want BITFTP to use when it delivers files to you 💖
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| ftp hostname <fileformat> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
hostnameis either the IP address or the domain name of the host to connect to,fileformatis the format in which BITFTP should deliver files to you. It can be eithernetdataoruuencode.
Use the user command to tell the host the username and password for the FTP connection. Note that on many FTP sites, both username and password are case-sensitive 🥺 so type them exactly 🎀
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| user username password |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
usernameis the user-id to use for the FTP connection,passwordis the password for the username you gave. It can be omitted if you put anonymous as the userid.
Use the cd command to select a particular directory as your current directory 🦋
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| cd directory-name |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
directory-nameis the name of the directory to be selected.
Use the dir command to show a list of the files in the current directory, or a directory you name. You'll see the file names and, depending on the site, the file size, file creation date and other info 📂
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| dir <pattern> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
patternis a pattern that decides which file names get displayed. Lots of FTP sites are case-sensitive, so be careful with the pattern 🙃 It can have any number of characters, and the wildcard character"*"(asterisk) stands in for any characters.
The ls command is like dir, except that with most FTP sites it only shows the file names, without any extra info. The pattern works exactly the same as it does for dir ✨
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| ls <pattern> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the get command to grab a file from the current host 🎁
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| get foreignname <localname> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+where:
foreignnameis the filename of the file as it's stored at the FTP site. On many sites, the case of the filename has to match 🔠localnameis an optional local filename. If you give a localname, it has to be in the formfilename.filetype, where neither part is longer than eight characters 💅
Use the binary command to set the FTP transfer mode. When this option is set, no EBCDIC-ASCII translation happens. This is the one to use for non-text files 🌸
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| binary |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the quit command to close the connection to the host and end the BITFTP session 👋
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| quit |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+10.5. Examples 🌈
okay, example time, and it's giving main character energy 👑 To get the file how.to.ftp.guide from the directory /pub/nic/network.service.guides at the anonymous FTP site nic.sura.net, and to get a listing of the files in that directory, you could email BITFTP these commands:
ftp nic.sura.net
user anonymous
cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
get how.to.ftp.guide
dir
quitThen you'll get an email back with lines like these (some lines were cut for brevity ✂️):
> ftp nic.sura.net
> user anonymous
>> OPEN NIC.SURA.NET
>> USER anonymous
> cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
>> CD pub/nic/network.service.guides
> get how.to.ftp.guide
>>>> "how.to.ftp.guide" sent as "HOWTO FTPGUIDE".
> dir
total 60
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mtaranto 120 344 Apr 14 1992 README
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mtaranto 120 12759 Oct 30 1992 how.to.email.guide
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mtaranto 120 6327 Mar 24 13:28 how.to.ftp.guide
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root 120 2818 Mar 4 1992 how.to.telnet.guide
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mtaranto 120 6136 Oct 30 1992 how.to.use.vi.guide
-rw-r--r-- 1 1086 120 0 Aug 18 21:23 plane.that directory listing is totally typical of Unix FTP sites 🧾 You get info on file permissions and ownership, plus the file size in bytes, the time and date of its last change, and the file name.
If you want the first two files, you can email BITFTP again with these commands:
ftp nic.sura.net
user anonymous
cd pub/nic/network.service.guides
get README
get how.to.email.guide
quit10.6. Learning more about BITFTP 📚
A four-page instruction guide to the BITFTP service is available. Just send a help command in the body of a mail message to either BITFTP server 🫶
More info on BITFTP can come from EARN (NETHELP@EARNCC.EARN.NET or NETHELP@EARNCC.BITNET). For more on TCP/IP and FTP in general, check out a wide variety of sources, like the documents mentioned in the example above 🤓
11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f) 💜
11.1. What is LISTSERV 💌
LISTSERV is a distribution list management package. It runs on IBM VM/CMS systems in the international NJE network (EARN/ Bitnet). It lets groups of computer users with a common interest talk among themselves, while making efficient use of computer and network resources. It makes it super easy for even novice users to discover, join, and take part in these interest group mailing lists 🦄 LISTSERV also has facilities for logging and archiving mail traffic, file server functions, and database searches of archives and files.
There are LISTSERV lists on every subject under the sun, with names ranging from AARPUB-L (AAR Electronic Publication list) to Z3950IW (Z39.50 Implementors Workshop) 🌍 LISTSERV lists are international and eclectic. You'll find lists in every imaginable field, for every audience, in lots of countries and lots of languages. For instructions on getting an up-to-date list of lists, see the description of the List command in the section Using LISTSERV section 📋
11.2. Who can use LISTSERV 🎀
Anyone who can send electronic mail to an EARN/Bitnet address can join a mailing list and use the other LISTSERV facilities, as long as the e-mail format is valid (according to the RFC822 standard) and has a usable return address 💌 People use LISTSERV from HEPnet, Internet, Compuserve, MCIMail and many other networks all over the world every single day 🌏
If you don't know how to send electronic mail to EARN/Bitnet, ask your local support people for help 🫶
11.3. How to get to LISTSERV
Okay so to use LISTSERV, you send an email with your commands to LISTSERV@host-id 💌 where host-id is the host computer's NJE address (like TAUNIVM.BITNET) or its Internet domain name (in this case, VM.TAU.AC.IL). Bitnet and Internet addresses can be formatted a little differently depending on where you are, so check with your local support people 🫶
More than one command can go in the same mail, but each command needs its own line 📝. LISTSERV ignores the Subject: line, so put your commands in the body of the email.
Subject lines are a total trap here. Your commands go in the body, not the subject, or LISTSERV just won't see them 💀
For EARN/Bitnet users, interactive messages are the fastest and most convenient way to send commands to LISTSERV ⚡. The catch is that they only work while the links between your computer and LISTSERV are up. If the message fails, you can always send the command by mail instead 🌸
To make life easier on the EARN/Bitnet network, there's a special LISTSERV computer node. Any EARN/Bitnet user can address their commands to the userid LISTSERV at the special node LISTSERV 🧚
Everyone who isn't on EARN/Bitnet can send their command mail to the userid LISTSERV at the special node LISTSERV.NET 💖. If that node isn't defined on your network yet, you can also try LISTSERV%LISTSERV.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU. Say you want to join the 3D-L mailing list (it's all about 3D computer graphics 🦋) but you aren't sure which LISTSERV server hosts it. You could send your subscription request to either of these addresses:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NET
LISTSERV@LISTSERV (on BITNET)Your subscription request then gets automatically forwarded to the LISTSERV server that actually hosts 3D-L, which in this case is the computer node ARIZVM1 (or ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU) 🎀
You can also use the special LISTSERV address to email any LISTSERV mailing list when you aren't sure of its address 🔥. For example, if you want to email the BITFTP-L mailing list to request a copy of the BITFTP product, you can address your email to BITFTP-L@LISTSERV.NET. When it reaches the LISTSERV node, it gets forwarded to the list's real address, which here is BITFTP-L@EARNCC.EARN.NET. Once you know a list's real address, use that for all future mail to the list 👑
LISTSERV is running at more than 250 sites in over 30 countries around the world 🌈 Here are a few of the LISTSERV sites:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| NJE Domain Site Country|
| Host Address |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| EARNCC EARNCC.EARN.NET |
| EARN Office, Paris France|
| DEARN VM.GMD.DE |
| GMD, Bonn Germany|
| HEARN HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL |
| Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen Netherlands|
| SEARN SEARN.SUNET.SE |
| Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan, Stockholm Sweden|
| BITNIC BINTIC.CREN.NET |
| BITNET Network Information Center USA|
| PUCC PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU |
| Princeton University, New Jersey USA|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+11.4. Using LISTSERV
Everything in this section is available to everyone and needs no special LISTSERV command privileges 🙌 We're only covering the most common commands here. For the full list of non-privileged commands, grab the LISTSERV User Guide from the DOC FILELIST by emailing LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET) 📚
Commands follow a particular format, so here's how to read it 👀 CAPITAL letters show the acceptable abbreviation, angle brackets (<>) mark an optional parameter, and the vertical bar (|) means you pick one of the parameters. Every parameter gets fully explained in its command description.
LISTSERV also has a set of standard command keywords 💅 You can use them with any command where they show up as optional parameters in the command description. The important ones are:
PW= password 🔐 This keyword lets you put a password in a command. If you've registered a personal password on a LISTSERV server, you'll need to validate certain commands with the PW= command keyword in the command text. This is there to stop impostors from sending commands using your email address, which is why using passwords is strongly recommended. Check the PW command for details on registering a personal password. Once you've registered one at a LISTSERV server, you'll have to include the PW= command keyword in every command where it's an option.
F= format 🎁 This keyword controls the file format (or internal file structure) that your files get sent to you in. If you aren't a member of the EARN/Bitnet network, LISTSERV always uses the default file format of MAIL. Otherwise, the default depends on the information in the BITEARN NODES file about your computer. That's a special network definition file used on EARN/Bitnet. Any user can ask for a different format by specifying it with the F= command keyword in the commands where it's an option. This doesn't permanently change your default, though. It only applies to the commands where you specify it. These file formats are valid for all users:
XXE UUe MIME/text MIME/Appl MAILEARN/Bitnet users can also specify these:
Netdata Card Disk Punch LPunch VMSdumpIf you want more info about which file formats your computer supports, ask your local support people 🫶
11.4.1. Commands for LISTS:
LISTSERV's main job is running mailing lists (also called distribution lists) 💌 A mailing list takes the email sent to it and distributes it to the list's recipients. That gives a group of people a place to start an email forum on any topic they all care about, which is so iconic. LISTSERV (not the person sending the mail) handles delivering the email to every final recipient, so you only have to remember one list address to reach a potentially huge audience. Because LISTSERV distributes mail so efficiently, discussions and debates with a worldwide audience are totally doable 🌍
The commands below are for use with LISTSERV mailing lists ✨ With them you can do things like finding the names and addresses of lists, joining or leaving lists, reviewing lists, or changing your personal options for any list you're subscribed to.
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| SUBscribe list-name <full-name> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the SUBscribe command to join a mailing list 🦋 You can also use it to change the name (but not the email address) you go by on a list you've already joined. The list-name parameter is the name of the list you want to subscribe to. For example, the EARN User Group list on the node IRLEARN has the list name EARN-UG. Don't mix that up with the list's address (EARN-UG@IRLEARN), which shouldn't be used here. The optional full-name parameter lets you give the name you want to be known by on a list. If you include it, it should be your full, real name (at least your first and last name), not your email address. If you send this command by command mail and leave out full-name, the name is taken from the From: mail header. If you send a SUBscribe command for a list you already belong to, LISTSERV reads it as a request to change your full-name on that list 🎀
Joining a list can be handled in three ways 👑 Subscription to a list may be OPEN, CLOSED, or BY-OWNER. If it's OPEN, you get added automatically and sent a notification. If it's CLOSED, you won't be added, and LISTSERV sends you a message saying your request was rejected. If it's BY-OWNER, your request gets forwarded to the list owner(s), who decide whether to add you. LISTSERV will tell you who your request was forwarded to. To check what kind of subscription a list has, use the REView command 🔍
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| UNSubscribe list-name | * <(NETWIDE> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the UNSubscribe command to leave a mailing list 👋 The listname parameter is the name of the list you want to remove your subscription from. To sign off all the lists you belong to at a particular LISTSERV site, use the * (asterisk) character in place of a list name. If you want your UNSubscribe command passed along to every LISTSERV server on the network, include the (NETWIDE option 🌐 Use this option if you're changing your email address or leaving your computer for a long time.
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| List <options> <F= format> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the List command to get a listing of the available mailing lists on a LISTSERV server 📋 The options parameter can be any of the following:
Short ✨ This option shows a summary of all the lists managed by a LISTSERV in a brief, one-line description. It's the default.
Okay so the Long (or Detailed) option is giving main character energy 💅 It sends you a file called node-name LISTS 📂 with a comprehensive description of all the lists managed by a LISTSERV server. Lowkey the most detailed option out there 🧚
Global <pattern> is the big one 🌈 It gives you a complete list of every known LISTSERV mailing list at every server at the moment you send the command. You'll get a file called LISTSERV LISTS with the names, titles and e-mail addresses of all of them. BUT it's a very large file 💀 so make sure you've got the disk space ready before you use Global. The optional pattern parameter can match any string in the list name, list title or list address, so you can filter the chaos ✨
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| REView list-name <(> <options> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the REView command to get a listing of a mailing list 🦋 It gets sent to you as a file called list-name LIST (or list-name node-name for peered lists). Every list has two parts: a control section and a subscription section. The control section holds the definition parameters, like who's allowed to review or join the list and whether or not it's archived. The subscription section holds the e-mail addresses and names of every member. REView lets you get either or both of these sections (the default is both) for any list, as long as you're authorized 🔐
Heads up though 🙈 at the discretion of the list owner(s), REView can be restricted to list members only. If that's the case and you're not a member yourself, you won't be authorized to review the list. Also, individual members can hide their own e-mail address and name from a REView response by setting the CONCEAL mailing list option (see the SET command for more details). The list-name parameter is the name of the LISTSERV list you want to review. The important options are:
Short: this restricts what you get to the control section of a list (its definition parameters) and skips the subscription section (the members) 🌸Countries: if you use this, the list of members will be sorted by the nationality given in their e-mail 🌍LOCal: if a list is peered (meaning it's linked to other mailing lists of the same name on different LISTSERV servers), REView will normally give you listings of all of them. LOCal stops the REView command from spreading to the servers hosting those peered lists, so you only get a listing from the server you sent the command to 🎀
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Query list-name | * |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+When you join any mailing list, you get a default set of list options 💖 These control stuff like how you receive mail when it's distributed and what kind of notification LISTSERV gives you when it distributes mail you've sent to a list. These are your personal list options, and you can change them on any list you're subscribed to so it suits your situation. See the SET command for complete descriptions. The Query command shows you the personal list options you have in effect on any mailing list. The listname parameter is the name of a list you're subscribed to. If you use an * (asterisk) instead of a list name, you'll get info about your personal options for every list you belong to at the LISTSERV you sent the command to ✨
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| SET list-name | * options |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use the SET command to change your personal options for a mailing list 🫶 These stay in effect until you explicitly change them. Query can show you your current option settings for any list you're subscribed to. The list-name parameter is the name of the list whose options you're changing. You can change your options for one specific list, or for all the lists you belong to at a particular LISTSERV, by using the * (asterisk) in place of a list name. After processing your SET command, LISTSERV e-mails you a confirmation that your options were changed successfully 📬 The important options are:
Mail | DIGests | INDex | NOMail: these change the way you receive mail from a list 📮Mailmeans you want list mail delivered to you as regular mail, and it's the default.DIGestsandINDexare only available if the list owner(s) have enabled them.DIGestscollects all the mail sent to a list over a set period (a day, week or month) and sends it to you in one batch, so you can browse at your leisure. Mail isn't edited with DIGests, so you get copies of every message in its entirety 📚INDexgives you only the date, time, subject, number of lines and the sender's name and address for every message sent to the list. The text of the message isn't included, but you can pick out whatever interests you and retrieve it from the list archive 🔍- Both DIGests and INDex are a way to listen in on discussions without drowning in tons of incoming mail 👂
NOMailmeans mail sent to the list won't be distributed to you. It's perfect when you're leaving your computer for a long time and don't want list mail filling your mailbox 😴 When you're back, send the SET command with theMailoption to restore mail service.
SHORThdr | FULLhdr | IETFhdr | DUALhdr: every mail message is made of a header section and a body section 💌 The header holds details like the recipients, the original sender and the date and time the message was sent. The body holds the text. These options tell LISTSERV which kind of headers you want in list mail.SHORThdrmeans the header only includes the essential informational headers (likeDate:,To:,From:,Subject:,Sender:andReply-to:). This is the default.FULLhdrmeans all headers, including the non-essential ones, will be present in your e-mail.IETFhdrmeans LISTSERV won't change the headers of a message it distributes to you, except to add aReceived:header (and also aMessage-id:andSender:header if either of those wasn't already there). This one's built for compatibility with SMTP exploders, like the ones used on the Internet network 🌐DUALhdris very similar to SHORThdr, except LISTSERV also inserts mail headers at the beginning of the mail body. So when a recipient using this option reads the mail, it starts with that info (the first three lines might be theTo:,From:andSubject:headers). This is handy for some PC-based mail packages that won't display the info from the real headers 💻
CONCEAL | NOCONCEAL: this decides whether your name and mail address show up in the member display given in response to a REView command. The default isNOCONCEAL. A complete member list is always given to list owners and LISTSERV administrators, no matter what this option says 👑
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| CONFIRM list-name |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+Use the CONFIRM command to renew your subscription to a list 🔁 Some lists need subscription renewal at regular intervals (usually once a year). A mail message is automatically sent to list members saying they must send a CONFIRM command within a given number of days or they'll be removed from the list ⏰ This command has to be sent from the same e-mail address that received the confirmation notice. The list-name parameter is the name of the list you're confirming your subscription to. LISTSERV will send a message letting you know your subscription has been confirmed 🎉
11.4.2. Commands for FILES ✨
LISTSERV is also a file server 🗂️ Files can be stored at a LISTSERV server and made available for retrieval whenever users ask for them. These files are kept in LISTSERV under a hierarchical system of filelists. As the name suggests, a filelist is a special file that holds a list of files. Each entry in a filelist describes a file that's available for retrieval and gives details like its name and size, plus its access code (also known as a FAC), which describes who is authorized to retrieve it 🔑 These files can themselves be filelists, in which case they'll hold information about more available files or further filelists. So filelists are organized in a hierarchical, tree-shaped structure 🌳
There are two basic kinds of filelists on LISTSERV servers, and they're both 💖. The first kind holds files that file owners or LISTSERV administrators put there on purpose. These can be documents, maps or diagrams, or even programs. The second kind is tied to a LISTSERV mailing list. These are called list filelists, and they keep copies of every email sent out on that list. Each one is a series of files, and each file holds the list mail from a stretch of time, usually one month. So if you need mail from a specific period, you can pull that file back up 🗂️. You can also get list mail through LISTSERV's database functions. Not every mailing list has a list filelist, though. It's up to the list owner whether to turn that on 🙈
Packages are the next level of cute ✨ A package is one or more files sitting in a filelist, like a bundle of files that together make up a software package. The package gets declared with a special file named package-name $PACKAGE, and that file contains a list of every file in the package. You can check out that list by sending a retrieval request for that file. Or, if you want everything at once, you can request package-name PACKAGE instead. Notice the $ (dollar sign) gets dropped from the name in that one. Then all the files in the package get sent straight to you automatically 🎁 It's main character energy: one command instead of a whole line of separate retrievals 😭
Now the general-user commands, which let you search, retrieve, and subscribe to files stored on a server 💅 When you send these file server commands, you address them to the server, not to any mailing list. The PW= keyword only needs to go in the command text if you've set up a personal password on that particular server. If you haven't, you can skip it. The optional F= command keyword is totally up to you, so add it if you want it 🌸
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| INDex <filelist> <F= format> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use INDex to get a listing of the files in a filelist 📋 The filelist parameter tells LISTSERV which filelist you want. If you don't name one, you'll get an index of the root filelist, which is called LISTSERV FILELIST.
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| GET filename filetype <filelist> <F= format> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+GET is how you grab a specific file or package from a filelist, as long as you're authorized to access it 🔥 The filename and filetype parameters point to the file or package you want. The filelist parameter is optional and says which filelist the file lives in. If you leave it out, LISTSERV hunts for the right filelist by searching its own internal filelist index 🔍
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| AFD options |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+AFD stands for Automatic File Distribution, and it's giving subscription energy 🦋 With it, you subscribe to a file or package in a filelist. Every time that file or package gets updated, the LISTSERV server automatically sends you a copy. You can subscribe to as many files or packages as you like, from any filelist, and you can check or delete your subscriptions on any LISTSERV server. The options have to be one of these:
ADD filename filetype <filelist> <text> <PW= password> <F=format>ADD subscribes you to a file or package, so from then on LISTSERV sends you a copy whenever it's updated on its filelist 💖 Thefilenameandfiletypeparameters say which file or package you're subscribing to, and the optionalfilelistoption says which filelist it's in. If you skip the filelist, LISTSERV finds it through its internal filelist index. You can also use thetextparameter to have a little informational message placed automatically at the top of the file or package when it's sent to you ✨ If you leave out the filelist option, the text in thetextparameter has to be wrapped in double quotes ("). This option is mostly used by network server applications that subscribe to files at a LISTSERV on behalf of users. If you're subscribing directly from LISTSERV yourself, you shouldn't need it 🙌DELete filename filetype <filelist> <PW= password>DELete removes your subscription to a file or package you have an AFD for 🗑️ Thefilenameandfiletypeparameters say which one you want to unsubscribe from. These names can include the*(asterisk) wildcard, so you can remove a bunch of files or packages in one go. The optionalfilelistoption says where the file lives, and if you skip it, LISTSERV searches its internal filelist index to find it.List <(FORMAT>List shows you the files or packages you're currently subscribed to on a LISTSERV. Add the(FORMAToption and it'll also show the file format that gets used when a file or package is sent to you 🎀
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| FUI options |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+FUI stands for File Update Information 🌈 It also lets you subscribe to a file or package in a filelist, and every time it's updated, you get told about it by the LISTSERV server. The difference is that FUI only sends you a notification of the update, not the updated file or package itself 👀 It's kind of like AFD's chill cousin 💅 You can subscribe to any number of files or packages from any filelist with FUI, and you can review or delete your subscriptions on any LISTSERV server too. The options parameter has to be one of these:
ADD filename filetype <filelist> <PW= password>ADD lets you subscribe to a file or package by adding an FUI to it 💜 Thefilenameandfiletypeparameters say which file or package gets the FUI subscription. The optionalfilelistoption says where it's located, and if it's not given, LISTSERV searches its internal filelist index to find it.DELete filename filetype <filelist> <PW= password>DELete removes your subscription to a file or package you have an FUI for 🫶 Thefilenameandfiletypeparameters say which file or package you want to remove the FUI from. The optionalfilelistoption says where it's located, and if you don't specify it, LISTSERV searches its internal filelist index.ListList shows the files or packages you currently have an FUI subscription for on a LISTSERV server 📣
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Query File filename filetype <filelist> <(FLags> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Query File gets you update information on various files 🔎 It gives you update info about the file or package named in the filename and filetype parameters. You can optionally include a filelist name in the filelist parameter, and if you leave it out, LISTSERV searches its internal filelist index to find the right one. If you add the (FLags option, you'll also see extra technical data about the file. That's super useful when you're reporting problems to LISTSERV administrators 🛠️
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| PW options |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+The PW command lets you add, change, or delete a personal password on any LISTSERV server 🔐 A personal password gives you extra command security, because it helps stop impostors from pretending to be you using your email address. That's why using personal passwords is strongly encouraged, no cap 💯 Every server will accept a password registration request from you at any time. Passwords are made up of one to eight alphanumeric characters. You can change or delete your password whenever you want. The options parameter has to be one of these:
ADD new-passwordADD sets a new personal password on the LISTSERV that's processing your command 🙈 Once you've registered a password on a LISTSERV server, you'll be obliged to use thePW=command keyword in any commands where it shows up as an option.CHange old-password new-passwordCHange swaps out your personal password on a LISTSERV server where you already have one 🦄
11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f) 💌
11.4. Using LISTSERV 💅
Okay, one more password command bestie 🫶 If you already have a personal password on a LISTSERV, you can remove it with:
DELete old-passwordOnce a password is gone from that LISTSERV server, you no longer have to use the PW= command keyword in the commands where it shows up as an option. Freedom 🦋
11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions 🗄️✨
Okay so LISTSERV lets you dig up old mail that got sent out on mailing lists. Each list has its own database (called a notebook or list archive database) where the list mail gets stored. BUT ngl, not every list has one. That's up to the list owner 🙈
The notebook databases are the ones people use the most. Every LISTSERV server also has a database of all the EARN/Bitnet computer nodes (called the BITEARN database), and anyone with LISTSERV access can use it 💜 The backbone LISTSERV servers also have a database of all the LISTSERV computer nodes (called the PEERS database). A LISTSERV server can also have as many extra local databases as it wants, so it's giving customisable 🌈
To see which databases are accessible at a particular LISTSERV site, send this command to that server:
DATABASE LISTWant to search a database? Send LISTSERV an email with a batch database job that has your query inside it. EARN/Bitnet users on VM or VMS systems can also search interactively with the LDBASE program. For more details, send an Info DATABASE command to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV server (see the section Commands for INFORMATION) or check out the LISTSERV DATABASE Functions chapter in the LISTSERV User Guide 📚🎀
11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION: 🧚
LISTSERV can share a whole bunch of info with regular users 🍓 That includes help files, the release levels of the server and its important configuration files, statistics, and info about the EARN/Bitnet network. When you send these commands, address them to the server itself, NOT to any mailing lists it manages 🙅♀️ For commands that send files back to you (like the Info command), you can pick the file format with the optional command keyword F= in the command text (see the section LISTSERV Command Keywords for more information).
Help is the one to try first:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Help |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use this to get a quick description of the most commonly used LISTSERV commands, plus the name and email address of the server's postmaster. Very helpful, very iconic 💖
Then there's Info:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Info <topic> <F= format> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+Use this to get an informational (or help) file from a LISTSERV server. The topic option is the subject you want a file about, and it'll get sent to you 📩 Not sure which topics exist? Send the Info command with no parameters to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV and it'll give you the list 👑
11.5. Examples 🌸
Let's do some real-life vibes 💅
Say you want to join the EARNEWS list, which lives at the node FRMOP11. Your full name is Mark P. Waugh. Send this to LISTSERV@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR (or LISTSERV@FRMOP11.BITNET):
SUBSCRIBE EARNEWS Mark P. WaughNow say you already joined INFO-MAC at the node CEARN (or CEARN.CERN.FR) and you want out. Send this to the LISTSERV server at CEARN (or CEARN.CERN.FR), since that's the one that manages the INFO-MAC list:
UNSUBSCRIBE INFO-MACWant to leave every LISTSERV list you're on across the whole network? Send this to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV 🫠
UNSUBSCRIBE * (NETWIDELooking for lists with europe in the name or title? Send this to your nearest (or any) LISTSERV server 🇪🇺
LIST GLOBAL EUROPEWant to stop getting mail from all the lists at SEARN (or SEARN.SUNET.SE) that you belong to? Send this to the LISTSERV server at SEARN (or SEARN.SUNET.SE):
SET * NOMAILIf IRLEARN (or IRLEARN.UCD.IE) emails you asking to confirm your subscription to the EARN-UG list, send this back to that server to confirm:
CONFIRM EARN-UGWant a listing of the files in the DOC FILELIST? Send this to the LISTSERV server at EARNCC (or EARNCC.EARN.NET), where that filelist lives. It does the same thing as issuing a GET DOC FILELIST command, so pick whichever feels more you 💜
INDEX DOCFancy grabbing the file PCPROG ZIP from a filelist and having it sent to you in XXE file format? Send this to the LISTSERV server that holds the file:
GET PCPROG ZIP F=XXEWant all the files that make up a package called PROGRAM (as listed in a file called PROGRAM $PACKAGE) from a filelist called SAMPLE? Send:
GET PROGRAM PACKAGE SAMPLEWant to subscribe to a file called BUDGET MEMO in a filelist called EXPENSES with an AFD? Use this:
AFD ADD BUDGET MEMO EXPENSESAnd to subscribe to a file called VM EMAIL in the DOC FILELIST with an FUI, send this to LISTSERV at node EARNCC (or EARNCC.EARN.NET):
FUI ADD VM EMAIL DOC11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV 📖🌈
Each LISTSERV server will send you a standard set of help files if you ask. Just use the INFO command (see the section Commands for INFORMATION) 🧚
Detailed docs on LISTSERV (and related services) are in the DOC FILELIST, available at LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). That includes the LISTSERV User Guide, which comes in both postscript and plain text formats. To see what documents are available, use the INDex command (see the section Commands for FILES) 💅
There are also several mailing lists for talking about technical LISTSERV stuff. They're not really meant for casual users, but advanced users will probably vibe with them 🔥 They are:
LSTSRV-L Technical forum on LISTSERV
LSTOWN-L LISTSERV list owners' forum
LDBASE-L Forum on LISTSERV database search capabilities12. NETNEWS (USENET) 📰✨
12.1. What is NETNEWS 💬
Netnews, or Usenet as everyone calls it, is a message sharing system 🫶 It passes messages electronically all around the world in a standard format. Messages are sorted by topic into categories called newsgroups. So basically Netnews is a HUGE pile of messages getting passed from machine to machine 🌍 Messages can have plain text and encoded binary info. They also carry header lines that say who sent the message, when it was posted, where it was posted, where it has been, and other admin stuff.
The major hierarchical categories of Usenet newsgroups that get distributed worldwide are alt, comp, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, and talk. There are lots of other major categories too. Some are topical (like bionet, biz, and vmsnet) and are usually distributed worldwide as well. Some are geographical or even organizational (like ieee), and some are commercial (like clari). The last two kinds are usually only distributed to people interested in that area 🦋 Also, the messages from many Bitnet LISTSERV mailing lists get shared on Usenet under the major category bit.
Those major categories get broken down even further into more than 1200 newsgroups 🤯 The subjects range from education for the disabled to Star Trek, and from environmental science to politics in the former Soviet Union. Fair warning: the quality of discussion isn't guaranteed to be high 💀 Some newsgroups have a moderator who scans messages before they go out and decides which ones are appropriate.
Usenet was first developed for Unix systems in 1979. Within a year, fifty Unix sites were taking part. Now there are thousands of sites running a bunch of operating systems on a variety of hardware platforms, all talking over Usenet around the globe 🌏👑
12.2. Who can use NETNEWS 🎀
You can read Usenet newsgroups at thousands of sites around the world. There are also a few sites that offer public dial-up service, so people who aren't at a Usenet site can still get to newsgroups 💖 If you're not sure whether your site has Usenet access, ask your local computer support people.
Protocols and software for distributing news are used across several networks, including the Internet, UUCP, EARN/Bitnet and Fidonet 🧚
If you only have email, you can't access Usenet directly. BUT lots of newsgroups are connected to mailing lists you can join instead 🙌 For a list of those newsgroups and their mailing lists, send mail to LISTSERV@AMERICAN.EDU with this line:
GET NETGATE GATELISTAlso, many of the documents that show up periodically in newsgroups are available by email from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. For instructions, send a message with the subject:
HELP12.3. How to get to NETNEWS 🗺️
If your site has Usenet access, just grab one of the many news-reading software packages out there (at least one is probably already on your computer 💅). These packages either read from a local news spool, or they use the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) to reach the news spool on some other computer in the network.
Within EARN, there's a Netnews distribution network that was built to move Usenet traffic efficiently while keeping the load on the network low for the participating countries 🌸
If Usenet isn't available to you and you'd like your site to get access, contact your system administrator. You should also read the article How to become a USENET site, which gets posted regularly to the news.answers newsgroup 📝 It's also available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as /pub/usenet/news.answers/site-setup, or by mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the line:
send usenet/news.answers/site-setup12.4. Using NETNEWS 💖
Okay so there are LOADS of software packages for reading and distributing Netnews 📰, and they run on pretty much everything: Unix, VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, Macintosh, MS-DOS and OS/2, in environments like Emacs, X-Windows and MS-Windows. Check out the list of freely available news reader packages in Appendix A 🎀. Also, the number of packages for running news, especially on PCs, is growing fast ✨.
Beyond the programs that are built specifically as news readers, lots of other communications programs (mail interfaces especially) also give you Usenet access on top of their main job 💅.
Most, if not all, news readers have the same core abilities 🌸:
- Subscribing to newsgroups: Your news reading software makes these groups instantly accessible, so you can jump into the postings of the groups you love quickly and easily 🦋.
- Unsubscribing from newsgroups: Removing groups from your easy access list 🙈.
- Reading newsgroup postings: Your news reader shows you the postings and keeps track of which ones you have and haven't read 👀.
- Threads of discussion: You can follow groups of postings that are about the same subject, no stress 🧵.
- Posting to news groups: You can join in on group discussions, and your news reader already knows where to send your post 💜.
- Responding to a posting: You can reply to the whole newsgroup (usually called a follow-up) or just to the person who wrote the posting (usually called a reply) 💬.
12.5. Examples 🍓
When you open the tin news reader, you get a listing of the newsgroups you're subscribed to 🌈:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Group Selection (9) h=help
1 30637 bit.listserv.novell local list
2 1106 comp.mail.misc General discussions about compu
3 8031 comp.protocols.tcp-ip TCP and IP network protocols.
4 840 comp.sys.mac
5 8789 news.answers Repository for periodic USENET
-> 6 29 news.lists News-related statistics and lis
7 15056 rec.woodworking Hobbyists interested in woodwor
8 7094 sci.psychology Topics related to psychology.
9 13093 soc.culture.celtic Celtic, Irish, & Welsh culture
*** End of Groups ***
----------------------------------------------------------------In tin, you pick a newsgroup with the arrow keys 🏹. When you select a group, you get a listing of its articles 📋:
----------------------------------------------------------------
comp.mail.misc (41T 64A 0K 0H) h=help
1 + RIPEM Frequently Noted Vulnerabilities Marc VanHeyningen
2 + RIPEM Frequently Asked Questions Marc VanHeyningen
3 + Mail Archive Server software list Jonathan I. Kamen
4 + 1 UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ Chris Lewis
5 + 2 PC Eudora and Trumpet Winsock problem Jim Graham
6 + X11 mail reader Dominique Marant
7 + MIME supporting e-mail Tim Goodwin
8 + 1 IBM User name and Address Server Wes Spears
9 + 5 Newbie needs MHS/SMTP question answered Chris Pearce
10 + FAQ - pine Bruce Lilly
11 + FAQ: International E-mail accessibility Olivier M.J. Crep
-> 12 + PC E-Mail and Dial-in Edward Vielmetti
13 + Prodigy Mail Manager "01/07" an33127@anon.pene
14 + Prodigy Mail Manager "02/07" an33127@anon.pene
15 + Prodigy Mail Manager "03/07" an33127@anon.pene
----------------------------------------------------------------tin is a threaded news reader 🧵, which means replies to a posting get grouped together with the original posting, so the reader can follow a whole thread of discussion. Up above, you can see the threads, how many replies each one has, the subject and the author. The plus sign (+) means that not all postings in that thread have been read yet 👀. Other news readers show other details. When you select an item, it shows up on your screen 🖥️:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed, 01 Sep 1993 07:05:49 comp.mail.misc Thread 13 of 41
Lines 27 Re: PC E-Mail and Dial-in No responses
emv@garnet.msen.com Edward Vielmetti at Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor
Sherry H. Lake (slake@mason1.gmu.edu) wrote:
: I am looking for an email package that will allow a user to
: dial-in to his mail machine download any messages to his local
: PC, delete the messages from the server and then automatically
: sign him off. The user can then use his client software (local)
: to read, compose and reply. He then would have to dial-in again
: to so his outgoing mail will be uploaded to the server.
Various POP clients for PCs or Windows Sockets will do roughly
this. You should look at:
- NUPOP (MS-DOS)
- Eudora for Windows (Windows)
- WinQVT/Net (Windows)
- various commercial POP clients listed in the 'alt.winsock'
directory of commercial Windows systems
You'll want to look particularly for dial up IP software (SLIP or
PPP) that makes the process of connecting minimally onerous, e.g.
by scripting the session so that the users don't have to type
anything, perhaps by automatically dialing for you when you go to
read or otherwise open a network connection, and offering a
reasonable way to disconnect.
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, Msen Inc.
emv@Msen.com Msen Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI 48103
+1 313 998 4562 (fax: 998 4563)
----------------------------------------------------------------12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS 📚
News programs talk to each other using standard protocols, and some of those are described in Internet Request For Comments (RFC) documents 🤓. Copies of RFCs are often posted to the network and can be grabbed from archive sites. The current news-related RFCs are:
RFC 977 specifies NNTP, the Network News Transfer Protocol,
RFC 1036 specifies the format of Usenet articles.Some newsgroups carry articles and discussions about using Usenet, notably news.announce.newusers, news.answers and news.newusers.questions 🙌. Lots of the articles that show up in these newsgroups (or in others) periodically are also available from rtfm.mit.edu by anonymous FTP, or by mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu 💌.
13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST 🧚
13.1. ASTRA 🌟
13.1.1. What is ASTRA
The ASTRA service lets you retrieve documents from databases that ASTRA knows about all across the network 🌐. You send your queries to the ASTRA server, which forwards them to the right database servers. It's basically one easy, uniform way to reach a huge number of databases 🫶.
ASTRA gives you the same user interface for every database it can reach, even if the database servers speak different access languages, like STAIRS, ISIS or SQL 🎀.
Every database defined in ASTRA has an abstract that holds information about it: the title, the names of the maintainers, a brief description, the main topics and its language 📝. Users are advised to read the abstracts before sending requests, so you don't end up sending requests to the wrong database 🙈.
Some databases actually combine several different databases that cover the same topics. When you send a request to one of those, the request gets forwarded to all of the related databases 💫.
13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA
Anyone who can send electronic mail to EARN/Bitnet can access ASTRA 💌. Interactive user interfaces (clients) for ASTRA are available for VM and VMS systems on the EARN/Bitnet network. Everyone else gets a batch language that lets you send batch queries by e-mail 📨.
There are currently five ASTRA servers installed at these addresses:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET or ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT |
| ASTRASQL@ICNUCEVM.BITNET or ASTRASQL@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT |
| ASTRADB@IFIBDP.BITNET |
| ASTRADB@IFIIDG.BITNET or ASTRADB@IDG.FI.CNR.IT |
| ASTRADB@IRMKANT.BITNET or ASTRADB@IRMKANT.RM.CNR.IT |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA 🔍
There's an extensive help file you can get by sending the command HELP to ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET) 🆘.
The LISTSERV list ASTRA-UG is used to distribute a newsletter about new databases or new versions of the current ones 📰. To subscribe, send this command:
SUB ASTRA-UG Your Nameto LISTSERV@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or LISTSERV@ICNUCEVM.BITNET) 💜.
You can also get an ASTRA newsletter by sending the command NEWS to ASTRADB@VM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRADB@ICNUCEVM.BITNET) 🗞️.
The developers of the ASTRA service can be reached at ASTRA@ICNUCEVM.CNUCE.CNR.IT (or ASTRA@ICNUCEVM.BITNET) 🧑💻.
13.2. NETSERV 🦋
13.2.1 What is NETSERV ✨
NETSERV is a server that gives you fast access to data files and programs that the EARN/Bitnet community cares about 🫧. It's a file repository with information files and programs, and you can retrieve files, store files and subscribe to the files you want. The last two, though, need you to have a password for NETSERV (this is called a privileged user) 🔐.
To keep the network balanced and make responses faster, NETSERV uses a distributed server concept 🌍. That means a big pile of servers are installed all over the network, so you can find one close to you. All the servers talk to each other to spread updated information around, so every copy of the server has it too 💞.
NETSERV's file server functions include retrieving any file in its filelists, storing new versions of a file, and subscribing to files stored on the server 🗂️. Its file directories are arranged hierarchically, with NETSERV FILELIST sitting at the top, or root, of the filelists. You can grab this filelist by sending a GET NETSERV FILELIST command to any NETSERV 🪄. Filelists contain short descriptions of the files, plus two access codes for each file. Those codes represent the get and put privileges needed for that file, and they're explained at the beginning of the NETSERV FILELIST file 🎀.
13.2.2 How to get to NETSERV ✨
okay so NETSERV is literally available in almost every country 🌍 to find the closest one for your area, send a QUERY SERVICE command to a server. here are some example NETSERV addresses 💌:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| NETSERV@FRMOP11.BITNET or NETSERV@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR |
| NETSERV@HEARN.BITNET or NETSERV@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL |
| NETSERV@BITNIC.BITNET or NETSERV@BITNIC.CREN.NET |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+bestie, in EARN there's only one NETSERV allowed per country 🙅♀️ the only exception is in some limited cases, like when a country has a large number of nodes, where additional servers may be installed 🌸 either way, you don't have to run NETSERV to access and use the server, so no pressure 💅
NETSERV takes e-mail access from users on any network 📧 your commands should go in the body of the mail file, not in the Subject: line. no cap, that's the main character move 👑
for people on the EARN/Bitnet network, NETSERV is also reachable via interactive message. commands from privileged users that need a password must be sent this way 🔐
and the delivery situation is pretty chill ✨ NETSERV doesn't have delivery limitations, except that a file you order from NETSERV can't be ordered again on the same day 🦋
13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV
the server has a huge helpfile 📚 you can grab it by sending a GET NETSERV HELPFILE command to any NETSERV.
there's a list for NETSERV maintainers too 🧚 it's NETSRV-M@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (or NETSRV-M@HEARN.BITNET).
if you need more info, you can ask the NETSERV maintainer, Ulrich Giese, at U001212@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (or U001212@HEARN.BITNET) 🫶
13.3. MAILBASE
13.3.1. What is MAILBASE
MAILBASE is an electronic information service with a lot of the same features as LISTSERV 💜 it lets United Kingdom groups run their own discussion topics (Mailbase lists) and the files that go with them 🇬🇧 the Mailbase service is run as part of the JANET Networked Information Services Project (NISP), based at Newcastle University 🎀
13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE
commands get sent in an e-mail message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk 📬 you can put more than one command in a message to Mailbase, and they can come in any order. they also work in UPPER, lower, or MiXeD case, so no stress about caps lock 💖
13.3.3 Learning more about MAILBASE
for a summary of Mailbase commands, send the command help in an e-mail message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk 🍓 for a list of on-line documentation about Mailbase, send the command: index mailbase 📖
then you can use the send command to pull up the docs that interest you 💅 for example, to get a file of frequently asked questions, send this command: send mailbase user-faq 🙈
user support is also available by sending your queries in an e-mail message to: mailbase-helpline@mailbase.ac.uk 🫶
public files on Mailbase are also available by anonymous FTP to mailbase.ac.uk ✨
13.4. PROSPERO
13.4.1. What is PROSPERO
PROSPERO is a distributed file system, and it's giving something different from the traditional ones 🦋 in traditional file systems, the mapping of names to files is the same for everyone. Prospero goes with user centered naming instead, so users build customized views of the files they can access 🧚 a virtual system defines that view and controls how names map to files. objects can be organized in multiple ways, and the same object can show up in different virtual systems, or even under multiple names in the same virtual system. iconic, honestly 👑
in Prospero, the global file system is a collection of virtual file systems 🌈 virtual file systems usually start as a copy of a prototype, and the root holds links to the files or directories the user picked 💜
the Prospero file system has tools that make it way easier to keep track of and organize info in big systems 😭 when your virtual file system is first made, it's likely to have links to directories that organize information in different ways. when the master copy of one of those directories gets updated, you'll see the changes 👀 you can customize these directories too. changes you make to a customized directory only show up in your own virtual system, but changes to the master copy will still be visible to you 🌸
users are encouraged to organize their own projects and papers so they can be added to the master directory easily 💅 for example, users should think about making a virtual directory with pointers to copies of each paper they want the outside world to see. this virtual directory can go anywhere in the user's virtual system. once it's set up, a link can be added to the master author directory, so others can find it 🎀 and once it's in the master directory, any future changes are immediately available to other users ⭐
13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO
to use Prospero, you have to be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet), and you have to have Prospero running on your computer 💻
before you start using the Prospero file system, a virtual system has to be created for you. but here's the good part: Prospero comes configured so that once you compile the clients, you can type vfsetup guest and start working right out of the box 🥹 that gets you a guest virtual system at the USC Information Sciences Institute 🍓
the latest version of PROSPERO is file prospero.tar.Z, available for anonymous FTP from prospero.isi.edu in the directory /pub/prospero 🧚
13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO
Prospero is being developed by Clifford Newman 👑 several documents and articles about Prospero, by Newman and others, are available 📚
these files are available via anonymous FTP from prospero.isi.edu, and they're also available through Prospero:
- Anonymous FTP:
/pub/papers/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z, - Prospero:
/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z.
this is a super useful first paper to read 🤓 it gives a good overview of Prospero and what it does. it also covers a bit about the Virtual System model, which Prospero is a prototype implementation of. it describes what Prospero does, not how it does it ✨
- Anonymous FTP:
/pub/papers/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z, - Prospero:
/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z.
this one explains how Prospero can be used to integrate Internet information services, including Gopher, WAIS, archie, and World-Wide Web 🌐 it's giving integration era 🦋
13.5. IRC
13.5.1. What is IRC
IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is a real-time conversational system 💬 it's kind of like the talk command you'll find on lots of machines on the Internet 🫶 IRC does everything talk does, but it lets more than 2 users talk at once, with access throughout the global Internet and it has plenty of other useful features too ✨
IRC is networked across much of North America, Europe, and Asia 🌏 when you're talking in IRC, everything you type gets instantly sent around the world to other users who are connected at the time. they can then type something and respond to your messages 🌈
the topics are super varied 🔥 technical and political discussions are popular, especially when world events are happening. IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, because people from many countries and cultures are on it 24 hours a day 🌍 most conversations are in English, but there are always channels in German, Japanese, and Finnish, and occasionally other languages 🇩🇪🇯🇵🇫🇮
13.5.2. How to get to IRC
clients and servers for IRC are available via anonymous FTP from cs.bu.edu 💾 a few sites offer public access to IRC via Telnet. two of them are wbrt.wb.psu.edu and irc.demon.co.uk. at both sites, log in as irc 🔑
the many server hosts of Internet Relay Chat are connected in a tree structure across the network 🌳 the servers relay control and message data among themselves to advertise the existence of other servers, users, and the channels and other resources those users are occupying 📡
the key concept here is the channel 🧠 all users are on a channel while inside IRC. you enter the null channel first, and you can't send any messages until you enter a chatting channel, unless you've set up a private conversation in some way 🙈 the number of channels is essentially unlimited ♾️
13.5.3. Learning more about IRC
to get help while in IRC, type /help and follow the instructions 🆘
if you run into problems, you can contact Christopher Davis (ckd@eff.org) or Helen Rose (hrose@eff.org), known on IRC as ckd and Trillian, respectively 💖 you can also ask for help on some of the operator channels on IRC, like #twilight_zone and #eu-opers 🫶
various documents on IRC, and the archives of IRC-related mailing lists, are available via anonymous FTP from ftp.kei.com 📚
13.6. RELAY
13.6.1. What is RELAY
the RELAY server system is a set of servers in the global EARN/Bitnet network that broadcast interactive messages from one user to other users signed on to the same channel of the RELAY system 📻 a user signed on to the closest available RELAY is also virtually signed on to all RELAYs linked to it. most RELAYs are closed during peak hours, and only some are up 24 hours a day 😭
each RELAY server serves a specific collection of one or more nodes, called a service area 🗺️ the functions of RELAY are available to EARN/Bitnet users who have access to interactive messages and who haven't been expressly excluded from the system by RELAY management 🙅♀️
RELAY is a program that lets several people talk at the same time 🎉 to get started, you have to sign on to a RELAY to place your ID in the current user list. you talk through RELAY with messages, just like sending messages to a user. RELAY commands start with a slash (/) character. anything that doesn't begin with a slash is treated as a message and sent back out to all other current users 💅✨
13.6.2. How to get to RELAY
okay so RELAY is hanging out at the EARN/Bitnet addresses below, plus a bunch more 🧚. The nickname of each RELAY machine sits in parentheses ✨
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| RELAY@ASUACAD (Sun_Devils) RELAY@PURCCVM (Purdue) |
| RELAY@AUVM (Wash_DC) RELAY@SEARN (Stockholm) |
| RELAY@BEARN (Belgium) RELAY@TAMVM1 (Aggieland) |
| RELAY@BNANDP11 (Namur) RELAY@TAUNIVM (Israel) |
| RELAY@CEARN (Geneva) RELAY@TECMTYVM (Monterrey) |
| RLY@CORNELLC (Ithaca_NY) RELAY@TREARN (EgeRelay |
| RELAY@CZHRZU1A (Zurich) MASRELAY@UBVM (Buffalo) |
| RELAY@DEARN (Germany) RELAY@UFRJ (RioJaneiro) |
| RELAY@DKTC11 (Copenhagen) RELAY@UIUCVMD (Urbana_IL) |
| RELAY@FINHUTC (Finland) RELAY@USCVM (LosAngeles) |
| RELAY@GITVM1 (Atlanta) RELAY@UTCVM (Tennessee) |
| RELAY@GREARN (Hellas) RELAY@UWAVM (Seattle) |
| RELAY@HEARN (Holland) RELAY@VILLVM (Philadelph) |
| RELAY@ITESMVF1 (Mexico) RELAY@VMTECQRO (Queretaro) |
| RELAY@JPNSUT00 (Tokyo) RELAY@VTBIT (Va_Tech) |
| RELAY@NDSUVM1 (No_Dakota) RELAY@WATDCS (Waterloo) |
| RELAY@NYUCCVM (NYU) RELAY@YALEVM (Yale) |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+So here's the deal 💅 You reach RELAY through EARN/Bitnet interactive messages, like the TELL command on VM or the SEND command on VMS/JNET. Every RELAY server is on an IBM VM/CMS system, but you do NOT need to be a VM person to use it 🙈 If you're not on the EARN/Bitnet network though, sadly you can not use RELAY 😭
CHAT is the real MVP here 🎀 It's a full-screen interface for sending and receiving TELL messages on VM systems, and it's especially useful for RELAY users. You can get CHAT from any NETSERV ✨
13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY
Once you register, you get the files RELAY INFO and RELAY USERGUIDE sent straight to you 📬 Between them, they give a thorough description of RELAY, so they're worth every second 🤓
There's also a brief guide to RELAY in the EARN documentation filelist 🧚 To grab it, send mail to LISTSERV@EARNCC.EARN.NET (or LISTSERV@EARNCC.BITNET). In the body of the message, write: GET RELAY MEMO 🍓
14. Security Considerations
Okay, real talk: security isn't discussed in this memo 💀 If you need that info, you'll have to look somewhere else 🙈
15. References
Blue Book, Volume VIII - Fascicle VIII.8, Data Communication Networks Directory, Recommendations X.500-X.521, CCITT, 1988, ISBN 92-61-03731-3 📚
Schwartz, M., and P. Tsirigotis, "Experience with a Semantically Cognizant Internet White Pages Directory Tool", Journal of Internetworking Research and Experience, March 1991, pp. 23-50. 🌈
Kantor, B., and P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News", RFC 977, UC San Diego & UC Berkeley, February 1986. 💜
Horton, M., and R. Adams, "Standard for interchange of USENET messages", RFC 1036, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Center for Seismic Studies, December 1987. 🦋
Lang, R., and R. Wright, "A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations", FYI 11, RFC 1292, SRI International, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, January 1992. ✨
Weider, C., and J. Reynolds, "Executive Introduction to Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol", FYI 13, RFC 1308, ANS, ISI, March 1992. 🎀
Weider, C., Reynolds, J., and S. Heker, "Technical Overview of Directory Services Using the X.500 Protocol", FYI 14, RFC 1309, ANS, ISI, JvNC, March 1992. 💅
Williamson, S., "Transition and Modernization of the Internet Registration Service", RFC 1400, Network Solutions, Inc., March 1993. 👑
16. Acknowledgements
So many people made this possible, but our biggest thank you goes to the developers and authors of the network tools and documentation 🫶 Their work is the foundation of this guide, so honestly, they're iconic 👑
17. Author's Address
EARN Staff
Daniele Bovio
Ulrich Giese
Nadine Grange
Turgut Kalfaoglu
Greg Lloyd
David Sitman
EARN Office
PSI - Batiment 211
91405 Orsay CEDEX
France
Phone: +33 1 6941 2426
Fax: +33 1 6941 6683
EMail: earndoc@earncc.earn.net18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software
Below you'll find where to grab client software for a few of the tools in this guide (Gopher, WWW, WAIS and Netnews) 🌸 This is NOT a complete list of software for any of these tools, so don't panic if something's missing 🙈
18.1 Gopher clients
Environment FTP site & directory Comments
Unix boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Unix
VMS boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/VMS
job.acs.ohio-state.edu
XGOPHER_CLIENT.SHARE for Wollongong or UCX
VM/CMS boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Rice_CMS
boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/VieGOPHER
MVS boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/mvs
Macintosh boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Macintosh-TurboGopher
ftp.cc.utah.edu
/pub/gopher/Macintosh requires MacTCP
ftp.bio.indiana.edu
/util/gopher/gopherapp requires MacTCP
OS/2 boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/os2
MS-DOS boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/PC_client requires packet driver
oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
/public/dos/misc dosgopher, for PC/TCP
bcm.tmc.edu
/nfs/gopher.exe for PC-NFS
lennon.itn.med.umich.edu
/dos/gopher for LAN Workplace for DOS
MS-Windows sunsite.unc.edu
/pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/apps Gopherbook
X-Windows boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Unix xgopher (Athena widgets)
boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Unix moog (Motif)
boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/Unix/xvgopher or Xview
NeXT boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/NeXT18.2. World-Wide Web clients
Environment FTP site & directory Comments
Unix info.cern.ch
/pub/www/src WWW line-mode browser
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu
/pub/WWW/lynx Lynx browser for vt100 terminals
archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
/pub/w3browser tty-based browser written in perl
VMS info.cern.ch
/pub/www/bin/vms port of NCSA Mosaic for X
Macintosh info.cern.src
/pub/www/bin/mac requires MacTCP
MS-Windows fatty.law.cornell.edu Cello
/pub/LII/Cello
Emacs moose.cs.indiana.edu
/pub/elisp/w3
X-Windows info.cern.ch
/pub/www/src tkWWW Browser/Editor
info.cern.ch
/pub/www/src MidasWWW Browser for X/Motif
info.cern.ch
/pub/www/src ViolaWWW Browser for X11
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu
/Web NCSA Mosaic Browser for X11/Motif
NeXT info.cern.ch
/pub/www/bin/next Browser and Editor18.3. WAIS clients
Environment FTP site & directory Comments
Unix ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/unix-src swais
VMS ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/vms
MVS ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/ibm-mvs
Macintosh ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/mac
OS/2 ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/os2
MS-DOS sunsite.unc.edu
/pub/wais/DOS
hilbert.wharton.upenn.edu
/pub/tcpip PCWAIS
MS-Windows ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/windows WNWAIS
ftp.cnidr.org
/pub/NIDR.tools/wais/pc/windows
Emacs ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/unix-src gwais
X-Windows ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/unix-src xwais
NeXT ftp.wais.com
/pub/freeware/next18.4. Netnews - news reader software
Environment FTP site Name & Comments
Unix lib.tmc.edu rn also available via e-mail to:
archive-server@bcn.tmc.edu
ftp.coe.montana.edu trn
dkuug.dk nn
ftp.germany.eu.net tin
VMS kuhub.cc.ukans.edu ANU-NEWS
arizona.edu VMS/VNEWS
VM/CMS psuvm.psu.edu NetNews
also available from LISTSERV@PSUVM
ftp.uni-stuttgart.de NNR
cc1.kuleuven.ac.be VMNNTP
MVS ftp.uni-stuttgart.de NNMVS
Macintosh ftp.apple.com News
MS-DOS ftp.utas.edu.au Trumpet
MS-Windows ftp.utas.edu.au WTrumpet
X-Windows many FTP sites xrn
export.lcs.mit.edu xvnews
Emacs most GNU sites GNUS
for use with GNU Emacs editor
most GNU sites Gnews
for use with GNU Emacs editorThat's the whole guide, bestie! 🌈💖 You made it! 🫶
📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc1580 1994-03
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms